


The Last of All the Rides We Take

by count-to-seventeen (parisienneheart)



Series: Count to Seventeen and Close Your Eyes [4]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Action/Adventure, Conspiracy, Coping, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, Reconciliation, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense, Team as Family, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 19:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 98,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parisienneheart/pseuds/count-to-seventeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The third and final act of the "Count to Seventeen and Close Your Eyes" series.</p><p>Recovering from their battle wounds and emotional scars, the Fabulous Killjoys decide to stay in Battery City until they can find a way to save Gerard and bring him home, despite the awful truth of what he has become. But things get complicated once they're actively hunted down by SCARECROW, leaving them almost nowhere to run. Their scramble for survival leads Leya and the others to people they once thought they'd never see again and revelations that bring both heartbreak and happiness. It all ends with a bang.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posting this fic from my tumblr [count-to-seventeen.tumblr.com](http://count-to-seventeen.tumblr.com)
> 
> This is the concluding chapter to "Count to Seventeen and Close Your Eyes." A lot of familiar faces come back and people we've only heard about show up. Leya also matures quite a bit and the themes of family (blood and found) and friendship are strong in this story. There's a bit of romance in here, and a bit of unresolved tension that tip-toes the friends/lovers line and is actually a bit ambiguous, though it will make more sense to you if you just read rather than me explain here :) I didn't tag pairings because that's not something I originally did when I first posted on the blog and I wanted it to be faithful to the original publishing style, for the reader to discover (and maybe be surprised) as they read along. 
> 
> If you have any questions about any of the tags or if there is anything else you need clarification on before you read, feel free to ask at my [tumblr.](http://count-to-seventeen.tumblr.com)
> 
> Hope you enjoy the end of this saga!

The rain lasted a week.

After that, life in Battery City went back to normal. Well, sort of. Ever since the explosive incidents at BLI and SCARECROW headquarters, we’ve been trying to keep a low profile. Of course, I didn’t have much of a choice, since I had a laser wound in my back to heal from.

I’ve been staying indoors, in bed, most of the time. Frank and the others have only gone out to get essentials, like food. But we’re running out of C’s to spend and it’s not like any of us has a job here or any other way of making money. It doesn’t help that we’re criminals in the eyes of the government, either. Although, that’s only something between us and the government–a.k.a. Gerard.

His press conference to the Battery City public was taped the day after our exploits and broadcast to every single home in the city. He appeared in front of a small crowd of journalists to announce the death of the Director and his ascension as new head of Better Living Industries.

 _“We must remain united in the face of tragedy,”_ he told the camera, while addressing the entire Battery City population. _“Although we suffer a huge and devastating loss with the death of the Director, we must carry on with her mission. It is equally important that, although I cannot replace the Director, I am someone this community can trust and put their faith in.”_

And then he did something shocking. He lifted his black mask and revealed himself, clean-cut black hair and all. Most of the journalists gasped–the ones who recognized his face, anyway.

_“My name is Gerard Way. I am the former fugitive, Party Poison.”_

A flurry of questions were then shouted at him and the journalists wavered between stepping closer to get to him first, or retreating to get away from the presence of such a highly dangerous ex-criminal.

_“But, Party Poison is supposed to be dead!”_

_“If you really are Party Poison and you aren’t dead, then what about the other Fabulous Killjoys?”_

One journalist even went as far as to accuse him of murdering the Director, although his authority over the BL/ind agents to detain the man were proof enough that he was in control.

_“I am no longer the man you once knew. I doffed the title Party Poison at the same moment that I decided to dedicate myself to the Director’s cause. I want to finish carrying out her dream: to make this world a better place. To create a perfect world. Clearly, we have come across some tragic obstacles, but I would like to take this chance as a community, to build a perfect world from the ashes of this catastrophe. We will take a final stand against the terrorists that threaten our peace. We will disinfect the city of anyone supporting the Killjoys and anyone else who threatens our mission..”_

_“Sir, if you were a Fabulous Killjoy, why would you now want to turn against your own comrades?” a female journalist timidly asked._

_“Ma'am, you are correct. I **was** a Fabulous Killjoy. But not anymore. You see, the Director found me and she opened my eyes. I saw how wrong I was. How wrong all Killjoys are. I have seen the light and the Director was kind enough to give me a second chance. A chance to make this world better.”_

_“But… we thought you were dead! It was reported in the papers!” another journalist protested._

_“It is true… that day, Party Poison and the Fabulous Killjoys died,” was all Gerard replied, with a complacent gaze in his greenish eyes._

_“Sir, what are your plans for the recuperation of SCARECROW and BLI Headquarters?”_

_“We will rebuild. And although our police force may have lost dozens, a new generation of soldiers and agents is budding just beneath our noses. The SCARECROW Academy is proud of its cadets, who will become the principal defense of the city, effective in 16 hours.”_

The rest of the press conference was concerned around the training of the SCARECROW Academy students and the building projects for BLI. As of yet, Gerard still hasn’t mentioned us or our relation to the explosions at BLI headquarters.

For now, they were simply considered terrorist attacks with no confirmed suspects. So far, we haven’t had any confrontations with the police force or Gerard. Which only made us more paranoid. And we could only eat so much ice cream to make ourselves feel better about that.

  
  


But we had to carry on with life as we knew it, which was pretty calm and domestic these days…

  
  


“Frank. Ow. Frank,” I muttered as I woke up feeling a pulsing pain in my back.

“Mmm… what?” Frank groggily muttered.

I was lying on my stomach so I turned to my side to see his face, eyes still closed and scrunched into a frown.

“You’ve got your dead weight arm on my back again,” I sighed out as I lightly pushed at his arm, which was indeed draped over my back.

“Oh… Sorry,” he groaned as he finally retreated and took his arm. He rolled onto his back and then stared straight up at the ceiling.

The soreness in my back subsided.

“You okay?” I asked as I leaned up on my left elbow to look at him. “You usually don’t sprawl out like that unless you’re super tired.”

He darted his hazel eyes to me and then grinned. “I’m okay, Leya. Just sorry my heavy ass was crushing your back.”

I lightly chuckled. “You’re not heavy!”

He smirked. “Then you’re light as a feather. And just as delicate.”

“Oh, shut up,” I laughed out as I leaned back onto my stomach.

I had the bed to myself for a week since the things that happened at BLI, since I was healing, and the guys were nice enough to give me that comfort. But after the wound had already started scarring over, I felt bad for taking up so much space for myself while the guys were all crammed in the living room. So we changed the sleeping arrangement so that Frank and I shared the bed, while Ray and Mikey slept on the pull-out bed from the sofa in the living room.

Frank is the smallest out of the guys, and then there’s the fact that we generally sleep together pretty comfortably, even if we have to basically fold into one another like Tetris blocks–which wouldn’t be something new. So it was really an obvious decision.

Although he protested and protested against it, saying that I deserve to have a whole bed to myself because I was injured–which was hypocritical, since he still had bandages wrapped around his hip wound and the cuts on his arms were taped up, too. But after a couple nights of sleeping well, he said no more on the subject.

To be honest, I don’t mind sharing the bed at all, even though it is a twin-size. Sleeping next to Frank makes me feel safe. Even though it might feel cramped sometimes, I like being able to feel him at my back, I like hearing his breath. I like knowing he’s here. I like waking up and his face being the first thing I see.

Maybe it’s some kind of symptom of separation anxiety. But considering the fact that we’ve all ‘died’ at some point, the anxiety feels justified.

Whatever it is, I just know that I sleep better when Frank’s next to me.

“How’s your back feeling by the way?” Frank asked as he sat up. He turned over to lift the white tank top I was wearing so he could examine the bandages on my back.

“Ray says I should keep the bandages on for two weeks at least,” I told Frank as I caught his wrist.

“Ray’s just being a worrywart,” Frank scoffed. “After all, it’s almost been two weeks. And you said it’s been itching, right?”

I nodded, although I wish he hadn’t reminded me because now I’m going to feel it itch again.

“That means it’s healing then!” Frank replied with big, bright eyes.

“I still think maybe Mikey or Ray should look at it first…” I protested.

“Pshh, fine!” Frank whined as he retreated his arm and then folded it behind his head.

I turned on my side as I yawned.

“So… should I make breakfast yet?” Frank asked as he turned to me.

“You, make breakfast?” I asked in skepticism.

“What?”

“Yeah, what are you going to cook?” I asked with a laugh.

“Hey, I make a pretty mean bowl of cereal, okay?” Frank replied to me with a raise of his eyebrows.

I laughed again.

  
  


After we all had breakfast–after waking up Mikey and Ray to join us, of course–we all chilled out in the living room. We still hadn’t changed out of our sleeping clothes, which were mostly sweats and t-shirts, or in mine and Frank’s case, tank tops.

Mikey and I started up a game of hangman. The category was films made in the 1980s. So far, he had guessed _ _AS_ _A_N_E and he only had a head and stick body drawn on the notepad.

“Why do I feel like this should be really easy to guess?” Mikey asked as he scrunched his lips to the side, closing his eyes to think. His bruises had all faded away and healed by now, but he still had a small white scar on his right eyebrow.

I laughed. “Want me to give you a hint?”

“No!” he replied with an adamant shake of his head.

Our game was interrupted when there was a knock on the door.

Frank, Ray, Mikey, and myself all glanced between each other with confused expressions. This had never happened before.

Frank rose up from his seat and went over to open the door.

“Can I help you?” Frank asked.

“Yes,” was the slightly uppity voice that resembled the front desk’s gray-haired secretary. “This letter was left for you at our front desk yesterday. You have not since appeared through the lobby, therefore I was charged with bringing it to you myself.”

Frank reached forward and took the small, white envelope. “Oh, thanks.”

“My pleasure, sir,” the man replied before heading off back down the hallway.

Frank closed the door and immediately flipped over the envelope, scrutinizing it with a frown.

“Well, are you gonna open it?” Ray asked from his seat on the couch, where he had one leg folded up over his knee.

“It’s got a BLI sticker on it,” Frank muttered as he tore the seal and took what was inside the flap.

“What the f–” he whispered out as his brow creased even more and his eyes widened.

“What is it?” I asked.

Frank looked like he was reading something in a small note, although there seemed to be another small card he was looking at with repulsion.

“Fucking hell,” he sighed out as he finally lowered the envelope and its contents.

Mikey stood up from his seat. “Is everything okay?”

Frank slumped his head back and scratched at his scruffy jaw as he walked forward.

“Here,” he said as he handed Mikey the letter’s contents. “Your brother sent us a birthday present–well, a present for himself.”

Ray and I exchanged skeptical glances and watched Mikey to see his reaction. His eyebrows creased in what looked like anger and his mouth tightened into a frown.

“This is full-on psychopathic…” he finally muttered as he tore his eyes away from it.

“Can either one of you just tell us what the fuck is in that envelope to make you have those horribly cryptic reactions?” Ray complained as he stood up.

“It’s not exactly something I’d be thrilled to see or read,” Frank muttered as he stood over by the counter and placed his hands on the tile.

Ray and I stood up and got next to Mikey, so we could see what was so upsetting. What I first noticed was a photograph. It was dark for the most part, but then I saw it. It was a picture of–me. And Frank. Asleep. And it looked like the picture was taken through the bedroom window.

“What the fuck?” I whispered out.

Mikey had his hands on his hips as he glanced over at me with a dark look. “Did you read the note?”

I took the note from Ray, who had just read it and now crossed his arms.

> _Dear friends,_
> 
> __You chose to remain in Battery City despite my warning. You know what this means. I know where you are now. And the next time I come around, you better be gone. You’re not hiding from me anymore._ _
> 
> _It’s also nice to know you all still remembered my birthday–oh wait. At least I took home one souvenir of my friends from that night. Would have brought the party to you, but it seems like you guys don’t stay up late anymore. (Good to see that the back is healing, Leya.You always were so resilient.)  
>  _
> 
> _Til next time, sweet dreams._
> 
> _XO_
> 
> _G_

I felt my face get red as I read this entire note.

“I guess this means we have to find a new place, huh?” Ray muttered.

I kept the note clenched in my hand while I turned around and walked up to the window, trying to see where this photo could possibly be taken from. There were a bunch of other high rises around us. It could have been from any one of them.

“You know, this is just like Gerard to do some creepy serial killer shit to try and scare us! Motherfucker…” Frank was making a dry laugh that sounded a bit too hostile to be something comedic.

Any sense of comfort that I had about living here was now shattered. Gerard knows where we are. This means that he can come at us at any time–and he will try to kill us. Hell, he already almost killed us.

My heart was beating rapidly and my breathing was feeling more shallow. Fuck. Just when things were starting to feel alright!

“He must have been inside this building already. So he probably could have barged in on us already, but he hasn’t,” Mikey thought out loud.

“Yeah, he’s a fucking tease!” Frank snapped. “It’s typical serial killer terrifying tactics. To keep us feeling paranoid. To make us feel violated. To anticipate his next 'visit,’ which will presumably be the time he actually tries to kill us.”

“How long do you think he was watching us?” I asked as I turned around to face them. “He implied that this was on his birthday, but this letter was dropped off yesterday.”

“His birthday was three days ago,” Mikey told me solemnly as he stared over at me.

I nodded. So he waited to give this to us. Does that mean that he had spied on us more than once? Now the thought about sleeping with Frank to feel safe feels even more poignant than it did before.

“We should move. It’s not safe for us anymore,” Ray told Mikey and Frank. “Especially for Leya, who’s already wounded. If Gerard comes after us… we’re not exactly in the best position to be ambushed.”

Frank sighed. “You’re right but… where the hell are we even going to go? Assuming that Gerard’s got tabs on us, it’s going to be even harder to get around and find a new secret place.”

“Maybe it’s about time that we got started on trying to fix him. Or take him down,” Mikey added as he crossed his arms.

“You have any suggestions on how to go about doing that?” Frank cynically asked.

Mikey sighed in frustration. “No…”

I started to bite my nails as I listened to them all. Wait. When the hell did I ever start to bite my nails?

“I should have stabbed the bastard back at BLI!” Frank shouted. “Not to kill, just to maim… then we could have just kidnapped his ass back out to the Zones…”

“He still would have been sick in the head, Frank…” Ray told him calmly.

“Well, what are we supposed to do now? Just wait until he gets here and tries to kill all of us? Fuck that. And fuck him! I did a good job of keeping this place a secret. How the fuck did he find us?!” Frank crossed his arms, gripping his biceps tightly.

“I have an idea!” I announced as I paced back down the living room. I took in a deep breath. “We can go to my house. My parents’ house, anyway.”

“I thought you said that they wouldn’t take you back. That they’d report you to the police as soon as they found you,” Mikey told me.

“Yeah, but if it’s four of us versus two parents who have absolutely no fighting experience, we can just… take over the house,” I answered with a shrug.

“You think your parents would be okay with you bringing home three full-grown adult men?” Frank scoffed.

“I don’t really care what they think,” I replied. “And this is just in the meantime before we find a better place to go. It’s the only place that I can think of… Gerard wouldn’t expect me to go back there.”

Ray put a hand to his chin. “That sounds like a fine idea, but…” he looked up at me. “How would you keep your parents from notifying anyone–not just about you, but also about three presumably dead criminals showing up to their house?”

I looked down. I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead…

“I think that we need to focus more on how we’re going to get a move on anywhere in this city,” Frank added.

Mikey looked over to him. “We should get a car.”

“And what about moving? Where are we going to go?” Ray added.

“We’ll scout for a place. Maybe talk to some of the guys down at the reservoir tunnel,” Frank suggested.

“We should probably do that ASAP then,” Mikey remarked as he looked down.

Frank sighed. “Ugh… alright.”

He moved to walk back into the bedroom. I turned to Mikey and Ray.

“I’m going with you guys,” I told them.

“No, you still need to rest. You should stay here,” Ray told me.

I sarcastically laughed. “Haha, there is no way in hell that I am staying here!”

Ray frowned. “You’re safer if you do.”

“Safer? Yeah, easy for you to say, Ray–no one took a picture of you while you slept and decided to send it back to you in a lovely handwritten psycho killer note!”

Ray looked down. “Sorry…”

“She’s right, Ray,” Mikey added. “She’s no safer here than she is going with us. And I think we should all stick together. You know, in a horror movie situation like this, it’s usually better not to leave anybody alone.”

“Exactly,” I nodded as I crossed my arms and smirked at Mikey.

“First things first. We need to find a car,” Frank said, appearing in the room out of nowhere, fully dressed in jeans and a black woolen sweater. He even had shoes on.

Ray turned to him. “Should I get on car duty, then?”

Frank nodded. “Yeah, you’re the best at that kind of thing. Mikey, you should go with him, to give him some backup.”

“Yeah, sure,” Mikey said with a nod. Then he and Ray went into Frank’s room to start getting changed.

I looked to Frank as I pursed my lips and sighed. He looked back at me with the same kind of look of exasperation.

“I know,” he told me as he shook his head. “But just stick with me, and we’ll be good. We’ll go underground, talk to a few people, see where we can go.”

I nodded as I walked past him to get dressed. When Frank and I had gone shopping to find professional work clothes for me to infiltrate BLI, we all also managed to buy regular outfits for ourselves, so that we didn’t have to wear the same shit everyday. Frank apparently had a bunch of money he took from the agent whose identity he stole. So he told us not to hold back on expenses.

I was glad to be back in something that felt nice and new. I wore dark blue jeans, black ankle boots, a dark red long sleeve, and a black coat. It had been slightly colder the last few days, since the rain seemed to be pushed along by a cold coastal wind current–a miracle in Battery City.

I was also glad for makeup to be at my disposal again, and had bought myself a small kit from a drugstore. Just six different shades of eyeshadow, but it was nice to finally do proper eye makeup after having gone without it for over a year. Frank at first jokingly commented on how makeup was “only for grown-ups” but he actually complimented it from time to time. Today feels like a day for smokey eyelids.

The four of us left down the elevator at the same time and only when we got out onto the street was when we separated.

“We’ll meet back here at three o'clock,” Frank announced.

Mikey and Ray nodded in return. Mikey was wearing a long, black wool pea coat, with his hands stuffed in the pockets, faded blue jeans, and black leather boots. I was surprised to see that when he actually had decent clothes he looked, well, very decent. Especially with the new pushed back hairstyle, he looked like some kind of high fashion model. It’s been a while since I remembered that this nerd is kind of beautiful.

Ray was wearing a jean jacket with a plain white t-shirt underneath, and his old black boots still on. All of the guys still had sunglasses on them, still wary of being recognized in public. Frank with his signature aviators, Mikey with black Ray Bans, and Ray with aviators similar to his old ones.

“Any preferences on the type of wheels?” Ray asked with a smirk.

Frank breathed out a sigh. “As long as it drives, it’s good. It could be motherfucking hot pink for all I care.”

Ray and Mikey chuckled in response.

“Stay safe,” Mikey directed to both me and Frank.

“You guys, too. Watch your backs,” Frank replied.

“Flashdance!” I blurted out to Mikey as I pointed an index finger at him.

He breathed out a laugh and asked, “What?”

“Our game of Hangman,” I stuttered out. “The movie, it was Flashdance…”

I could see his eyebrows rise behind his sunglasses but he was smiling, showing those canine teeth again. “Why didn’t I think of that…?”

I laughed, half at myself, and added, “Yeah. It was Flashdance. Anyway, you guys be safe too!”

“See you later, Leya,” Ray replied with a warm smile.

“Bye!” Mikey told me just before they both turned around.

Frank was looking at me and shaking his head as he stifled in a laugh.

And then we left in the opposite direction.

  
  


To enter the sewers from our area of the neighborhood, we had to go through the metro station.

Frank led me along as we walked along a deserted pathway in the station, whispering along to me, “This might get a bit dirty. Probably should have told you that before you got dressed today.”

“It’s okay,” I told Frank as he beckoned me to follow him under a staircase. He felt around for the tiles on the wall next to the staircase, while I looked out for anybody passing by.

As soon as he found the right tile, he pressed it and slid a whole block of the wall to the side to reveal a dark opening.

“Come on,” he beckoned to me. I quickly went along through the secret doorway and Frank followed, closing it behind him.

Where we were now was cold, dark, and lit up by small lanterns on the low ceiling of the dark river of sewer rushing by just a few feet below us. It smelled faintly of something like a mixture between chlorine and something foul.

“Smells kind of weird in here,” I remarked to Frank. I could barely see him in this light.

“You’ll get used to it. It’s nothing too toxic,” he told me with a light chuckle. “The guys we have to meet with are over in District 4, so this is going to be a bit of a trek.”

He moved his shoulder forward, gesturing for me to follow him. We walked for nearly half an hour before we came to a crossroads in the sewer tunnels. Frank paused, then turned left as we walked along an even narrower strip of concrete that bordered the dark sewer water. Drops of water were also falling from the ceiling, and it was getting on my clothes and in my hair.

“Ugh,” I groaned out.

Frank turned back to me with a guilty tilt of his eyebrows. “Yeah, sorry for not warning you.”

“Eh, it’s okay,” I replied. I’ve been through worse.

After a few more minutes, the path widened and eventually we reached an intersecting tunnel that was pitch black. Frank took out his lighter from his pocket and reached up to what looked like a torch. He took the torch and pressed a button on its side, while he brought the small flame of the lighter to the top. A spark appeared, and the torch illuminated with an internal fire behind a translucent white shell. 

Frank turned to me and crookedly smirked. “Should be just up ahead.”

I nodded as we continued to walk on toward the District 4 reservoir. The rebels that we were meeting were the same ones who had helped us out when we made plans to infiltrate SCARECROW and BLI. Specifically, they had provided us with the bombs we used. They were some of the last rebels living in Battery City.

The water in this part of the sewers was clean, and the tunnel smelled like nothing, much to my relief. After two minutes, Frank and I could see circles of light in the distance, and as we got closer, we saw a group of people huddled around those lights. Our footsteps echoed in this hollow space, and some of the rebels noticed and looked up at us.

“Hey, we got company!” one guy yelled out.

The people in this group all stood up then, their tattered coats and baggy pants making noise as they walked. These people were just like the rebels I used to know. They were dirty, gaunt in the face, and wore oversized tattered clothes, looking like they’d been starving for a while.

One guy emerged from the crowd and started to walk forward, closing the space between us. He had dirty blonde, shoulder length hair and wore mostly tan clothes.

Frank walked forward. “Danny, it’s Frank.”

“Frank, the fool,” Danny muttered.

Frank stopped walking and raised up his hands to the side. “Sorry, what?”

“You and your friends… way to make things worse for all of us!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Frank asked as he put his hands in his pockets.

Danny stepped forward, his face becoming more illuminated with the light of Frank’s torch. Now I could really see how angry the lines in his face looked.

“What I’m talking about is the increased patrolling, the cut-off borders between districts–your dear friend Gerard–the one you hired us to help you 'rescue’–is the new tyrant of Battery City! And now he’s cornering us like rats in the sewer!”

Frank raised his eyebrows. “Well, technically, you already lived in the–”

“How did you fuck up the plan? We gave you the tools–you were supposed to take out BLI and SCARECROW H.Q., leave no evidence, get your friend, and then get the hell out of Battery City.”

“Hey, we did most of that and we even took down Korse and the Director,” Frank argued.

“Yeah, but now we have your friend to deal with, who you failed to take out!” Danny retorted.

“Hey, that’s not our fault! Or his fault for that matter! In case you haven’t noticed, my best friend got captured and brainwashed into becoming the fucking dictator of Battery City and trying to kill us! None of us planned for that!”

“You should have killed the poor bastard when you had the chance, then! Would have saved us all this trouble,” Danny spat out.

Frank clenched his fists and lunged forward. Several of the rebels came forward with their weapons pointed at Frank.

“Hey!” I shouted as I took out my own ray gun and rushed to Frank’s side.

Frank looked over at me, sighed, and then unclenched his fists. “Look, let’s just talk like civilized people.”

Danny nodded and turned back to his friends. They lowered their weapons and I backed off a bit, too.

“Alright. What do you want, man?” Danny asked as he crossed his arms and stared down Frank.

Frank cleared his throat. “ Listen, I need a new place to crash. Gerard knows where we live.”

“And you came here directly after finding that out?!” Danny spat out.

“What? It’s not like he’s tracking me with a LoJack or anything,” Frank scoffed.

“It’s exactly like that, man!” Danny shouted with wide eyes.

Frank rolled his eyes. “It’s not.”

“He knows where you are, he can watch your every move! Cameras everywhere, dude! Fucking… if he tracked you down, who’s to say that the rest of us won’t be tracked down and brought down with you!”

“Nobody’s being brought down! I just need to change locations and then–”

“Look, I’ve helped you out already. And you and your friends brought all this on yourselves and on us. In fact, we don’t owe you anything. In fact, it’s more like you owe us.” Danny and all of the other rebels were now glaring at us. A lot of them were whispering amongst themselves. It made me feel like I was naked, the way they were scrutinizing both me and Frank, how unsettling it felt.

Frank persisted. “Can you at least give us some kind of clue where to go? I don’t need anything from you, just information.”

Danny shook his head as he backed up from Frank.“We’re done doing business.

"Wha–Why?” Frank asked, containing his frustration.

“You’re marked! And we’re not going to have anything to do with you anymore!” Danny turned back to his supporters. “Come on, gang! Time to move on ourselves.”

All the rebels immediately picked up their things and started to shuffle down the dark tunnel.

“Just–wait!” Frank yelled after them.

Danny whipped around. “If you try to follow us, we’ll shoot. So I’m only going to say it once.”

He turned around again and followed his gang into the darkness of the tunnel, leaving me and Frank standing there with just one brilliant torch between us.

“So they’re not going to help us,” I remarked. A bit redundantly.

Frank tightened his jaw before he turned to me. “We’ll get on fine without them. Let’s go home.”

Home. Which didn’t really mean anything anymore.

  
  


Frank was silent while we walked back, his eyes averted to the floor, his nostrils flaring a bit.

As I looked over at him, he noticed and then he cleared his throat.“Sorry for dragging you all the way out here for nothing.”

“You didn’t drag me out here. I wanted to come,” I told him.

“Yeah, well, sorry for wasting our time.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that…” I told him, hoping the tone was comforting.

“We should have been more careful,” Frank muttered. “How could we think that we could just go on living life without him coming after us?”

I didn’t know how to answer that.

Frank sighed. “You know… why is he doing all this? Telling us to leave, giving us time to go…. Heh, he could have killed me back when he first ran into me–I mean, it must have been him who found me at the research facility. The one who drugged me and dropped me off in the Borderlands. Why did he leave me alive? Why did he shoot you? Why any of this?”

I didn’t know how to answer any of these questions either, and I saw Frank looking so tired and anguished about it.

“Maybe he’s protecting you,” I feebly offered.

“Protecting me?!” Frank scoffed.

“Well… he keeps telling you to leave, takes you out of Battery City, sends you another warning note… He’s had multiple chances to kill you, but he hasn’t yet.”

“But he did put a laser in your back,” Frank sneered.

I had been feeling angry about it, I had to admit.

Of course, he had never aimed for me. He had aimed for Mikey. Which was worse.

“Maybe whatever they did to his brain… maybe it’s not complete. Maybe there’s still parts of him mixed up with whatever they brainwashed him to be,” I replied.

Frank scoffed again. “Well… so much good that’s doing him…” he was quiet for a bit, then sardonically laughed. “You know, sometimes I wish he was dead. I could handle that. Hell, it was like I’d been handling that for the last five months… but this, how do I deal with this? My best friend is now the enemy? After all the shit we went through, after all the blood and pain I put myself through just to save him, this is what he’s become? This is what I did all that for?”

I looked at him sadly. I had been thinking the same thing. All of it.

“Mikey thinks he can be saved,” I blurted out, trying to think of anything that might be comforting. “And… maybe Mikey is the key to saving him. I saw it, back at BLI headquarters… The only person he reacted to was Mikey.”

The same person he tried to shoot. Was that why?

“I can’t even imagine what Mikey’s going through…” Frank remarked. “First his brother’s dead, then he has amnesia, now his brother’s alive, but evil, and he’s got his memories back, but now he has to fight his brother or get killed by him?”

“He seems to be taking it pretty well, though…” I countered. “he seems happy.”

Frank looked over at me. “You don’t seem happy, though.”

I felt surprised. I hadn’t really thought about it. Was I happy now? Back in Battery City, living with Frank and the others? I mean, I had been smiling more and more each day. But was I happy?

“I know you don’t even want to deal with the whole Gerard thing… and you shouldn’t have to,” Frank continued as he shook his head.

I bent my eyebrows in guilt.

“I’m a part of this, though,” I argued. “And… I _was_ being a bit immature when I said those things…”

“You should leave and forget about us… Go on with your life… find your sister…”

“But you guys are all I have right now,” I replied, realizing it as soon as I said it.

Frank looked over at me and stopped in his tracks. He reached a hand over and rested it onto my head. Usually, a hair ruffle came next, but this time, he just moved his hand back to stroke my hair once, like I was a cat or something, while he kept a warm gaze on me.

“No matter where you go, you’ll always have us. Doesn’t matter if we’re separated. If you ever need us, we’ll find each other,” Frank told me as he continued.

I curved my lips into a smile at this.

“You’re so corny,” I chided at him.

He smirked and his eyes twinkled green against the light of the torch. “Yeah, shut up.”


	2. Chapter 2

Frank and I made it back to the apartment complex by 2pm and we waited in the downstairs lobby for Mikey and Ray, who fortunately got there at 2:30. After a brief greeting, Ray took us to the parking lot just behind the complex and showed us the car he stole, a fairly new model of a gray BLI city car. Out here, I could see that the sky was overcast and gray as usual and no one else was around besides us. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit paranoid, like we were being watched…

“Where’d you get it?” Frank asked as he sat in the driver seat, exploring all the buttons on the shiny, silver dashboard.

“Eighth District. Apparently it’s still the shit part of town,” Ray replied with a chuckle and a tilt of his curly head.

Frank pressed the button to open the trunk and had a look. I followed him, just for the sake of seeing inside the car, too. The trunk was a good size. You could probably fit like 7 bodies in there. Not that we’d need to… I hope… Geez, have I always been this morbid?

Mikey had his hands in his pockets as he asked us, “So, what did Danny and the others have to say? They got a place where we can go?”

Frank looked down and swallowed, then he shut the trunk closed. “Um… No. Actually… they don’t want anything to do with us anymore.” He looked up and pursed his lips. “They’re scared that Gerard might find them. And well, they think it’s all our fault.”

Mikey furrowed his brow. “It’s not, though! And they could at least help us out!”

Frank shrugged. “We’ll find a place. Don’t worry.”

Mikey stared over at him in silence, his jaw visibly tightened.

Ray cleared his throat. “Well, now that we’re done here, want to head up and have lunch?”

Frank nodded, “Yeah. Let’s go.”

Ray locked up the car, then we all headed back inside the apartment complex lobby.

“Maybe I should cook this time,” I suggested while we went up the elevator. I was trying to lift the mood, which Frank had managed to bring down with his constant frowning. “I know a thing or two about pasta and chicken.”

Ray smiled down at me. “Oh yeah? How come you never mentioned it before?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, the last time I actually cooked was over a year ago, so…”

“I can’t eat chicken,” Frank grumbled. Although a hint of a smirk made its way at the corner of his lip as he shifted an eye toward me.

I was about to reply when the elevator opened up to the 6th floor. We immediately noticed something was off. For one, there was a slight breeze. That never happened here.

Frank creased his eyebrows as he stepped out of the elevator. “That’s different,” he remarked. He walked ahead of all of us and sped down the hallway, until we found the black door to apartment 6C open halfway.

I gulped as I felt my heart thud against my chest. Frank turned a nervous eye back to all of us and quieted his steps as he took out his ray gun.

He walked cautiously, and pushed the door with his palm, keeping his gun ready in his right hand. He stepped in, scoping around the room first, then urged us forward with a beckoning gesture of his hand. Once Ray, Mikey, and I got inside the apartment, we saw that everything was broken. The large glass window of the living room was busted, the sofa was ripped up, the wooden dinner table was laid out on the floor in splintered pieces, the refrigerator was wide open with its contents spilled out like it was disemboweled, the TV screen shattered, and beads of glass were scattered all over the floor.

Frank quickly shuffled to his bedroom and a few seconds later, I heard a lot of things bang and clatter.

“Holy shit…” Ray softly gasped out as he softly stepped forward, crunching a splinter of the table under his foot.

“Henry’s sword!” Frank gasped out from inside his room. “It’s gone!”

Mikey, Ray and I bolted off to start looking around for all our personal stuff. There was so much broken furniture scattered about, it was a bit tedious to dig through. I saw some of my clothes on the floor and in the bathroom, my makeup was crushed, as well as everything else we had in there. The rest of my stuff was just gone.

Even the power glove I kept after all this time―GONE.

“Our receivers and all of our other gadgets, they’re all missing,” Ray announced with a pale face.

“Even my gloves are gone,” Mikey added as he rubbed two fingers at the edge of his eye.

“The swords are gone, the badge is gone…” Frank muttered. "Everything’s fucking gone!” He kicked at the dresser next to the bed and it made a loud thump.

“Clearly, Gerard made his move,” Ray stated. “Good thing we were out while he was here.”

“No, Ray–it’s a _shitty_ thing that we weren’t here,” Frank spat out. “We could have defended ourselves, could have prevented our shit from getting stolen!” He had been looking at the ground with a burning gaze and just now stormed over to us.

“We need to get out of here,” was all he said before he urgently cradled my arms to push me back out of the bedroom. “Ray, did you make sure that no one was following us when you drove back here?”

“Yeah, I don’t think anybody was,” Ray answered as he followed us to the door.

“Alright… Leya, tell us how to get to your house,” Frank said as he turned to me in the hallway. His eyes were absent of any light. This wasn’t a request. This was an order.

"Okay,” I replied with a nervous swallow. I felt my arms start to shake.

This is really it. We can’t stay here anymore. And now I’m going back home.

We quickly got back down to the street and into the stolen gray car. Ray drove while I sat in the passenger seat, telling him directions and pointing out the streets that I knew my way around all too well. And we eventually drove into District 4, the neighborhood I used to call home.

District 4 is a middle class neighborhood, a suburb on a hill with houses that are all uniform: geometrically perfect, white, gray, or black, tidy fake grass on each lawn with a concrete pathway leading up to the front door. The only thing that made my house stand out was that the lantern on the porch was slightly crooked where it hung.

Ray drove the car onto my old driveway and then turned it off. Everything was silent and still on this street. It freaked me out being back here. It looked exactly the same as it did when I left it.

“Are your parents home?” Frank asked.

“They should be. It’s Sunday,” I answered without turning back to him.

I took in a deep breath as I exited the car, and started to march forward, with my three guys in tow. I stopped in front of the door as Frank, Mikey and Ray waited just to the side, where they couldn’t be seen.

Frank pursed his lips into a sort of smile and squeezed my shoulder. Mikey and Ray also gave me encouraging bright looks in their eyes.

I turned away from them and rang the circular doorbell once. I heard it ring from inside the house and then waited a few seconds, fidgeting with my ankles as I tapped my feet on the floor. Until the door finally opened.

It was my mom who opened the door. Her hair was light brown, fading a bit gray at her temples. Even though she seemed to look a little bit more pale than I last remembered her, she had no more wrinkles than before, her eyes were still the same brown that I remember, and she still had that furrow in her brow whenever she saw something that confused her. Like me, standing right in front of her.

She inhaled sharply. “Leya?!”

I breathed in before speaking. “Hi, Mom.”

She still looked at me, bewildered, and didn’t say anything else. She just looked at me. Like I had eight limbs or something. Like she was looking for the hidden camera to tell her she was Punk’d. And she didn’t look the slightest bit happy to see me.

I swallowed and blinked before I thought of something to say. “Mom, I’m…”

“You’re alive!” she gasped as she reached out a hand to grab my arm. It felt rough as she gripped it tightly, but she was looking into my face with an imploring gaze, her face relaxed now.

And for some reason, I felt tears well up into my eyes.

No.

Why?

This woman hated me. She kicked me out of her home. For wanting to be normal. For wanting a normal life. For not wanting to take pills that destroyed me from the inside out. This woman, who completely discarded me, now has the nerve to say “you’re alive!” as if she actually cared? As if she really gave a damn that me and my sister were forced into exile as undesirables to this city and then separated–did she really give a damn that we were all sentenced to death on the night of the Cleanout?

She held my wrist tighter. “Leya!” she repeated.

“What is it, Barbara?” I could hear my dad’s faint voice from inside the house.

That really made my heart turn cold. Fuck, why did I ever suggest coming back here?

I tore my arm from my mom’s hand just before my dad appeared right at her side.

I felt my eyes widen at this as I absentmindedly backed a step.

“Leya?” he gasped. He looked the same, too, except his hair had gone almost all gray. The last time I saw it, only the hair on his temple was gray, the rest of it dark brown like mine. But now, even his mustache had a bit of a salt-and-pepper look to it. He wasn’t that tan anymore, either. His skin had gone a very pale shade of olive.

“How is it possible?” he loudly gasped as he looked at me. “You can’t really be my daughter…”

I swallowed and found the strength to speak again. “Yes, I am. It’s me. Leya.” I put my hands into my coat pockets, just in case anyone decided to grab at me again.

“It’s not possible!” Dad repeated.

I sighed as I looked down at the black mat in front of the door. “Yes it is! I’m here. I came home. Because I don’t have anywhere else to go. Now can you just let me in?”

Mom stared at me, then looked to my dad. “Tony,” she said in a pleading voice.

I looked to the side at Frank and the others, who were holding their breaths as they waited, crouched very close to each other on the concrete landing.

“Come in,” Dad finally told me as he tugged at his tie.

“Thanks,” I softly replied as I waited for my parents to give me room. I gulped and took that first step toward the door while keeping a peripheral view on my friends. They inched closer to the door, and that’s when I turned back to my parents.

“I just want to say in advance… I’m sorry,” I told them. Both of them blinked in confusion for the split second before I pushed my mom from the door and Frank, Mikey and Ray barged in just behind me.

“What the hell?” my dad growled out. Frank and Mikey stood just in front of him while Ray had shut the door and locked it.

These are my friends,” I quickly explained while looking between my mother and my father. “Please let them stay here!”

My dad turned a wild glance on me as he edged backwards into the living room. Then he creased his brow and balled up his fists. “Get the hell out of my house,” he sneered.

“Sir, we’re sorry for barging in, but we need a place to stay,” Frank explained.

“Leya, who are these people?!” my mom shouted as she brought her hands up to her chest.

I sighed as I put a palm to my forehead. “You both, just–calm down!“

"How are we supposed to be calm? You’re all rebels, aren’t you?” my dad barked out. He was looking around him. Probably for something to arm himself with, the way he looked at the guys like they were a pack of wolves descending on his home.

Frank, Mikey, and Ray just stood in the reception area of the room, huddled close together, but standing their ground.

"We come in peace,” Mikey feebly offered. Frank narrowed his eyes at this remark.

“They’re good guys!” I yelled as I outstretched my hands. “Just calm down and let me explain–”

My dad shot a fierce look over to me. “How are you even here right now? And who exactly are these guys?“

"They’re my friends, Dad…” I irritably replied, before I saw my mom tip-toeing her way to the kitchen, her eyes locked on the phone next to the sink.“Hey, Mom! Stop!”

“Shit, get her away from that phone!” Frank ordered Mikey. He promptly sped over to my mom, and led her by the arm back out into the living room. She looked freaked out. Great.

“Friends? Three guys? These punks–are they some of your rebel friends?” my dad sneered as he put his hands on his hips.

“Yeah, so what if we are?” Frank snarkily told him with a flick of his round eyebrows.

Then he went right up to my dad, having to slightly point his chin up to look my dad in the eye. It was the weirdest thing in the world to see Frank talk back to him. If I had it my way, these two would never ever meet.

Luckily Ray was here, and he kind of pushed Frank aside to speak to my parents.

“We’re sorry to barge in unannounced like this, but… we don’t have anywhere else to go,” he calmly stated as he looked between my mom and dad.

Unfortunately, they weren’t having it.

“Get out of my house!” my dad snapped in Ray’s face.

“Mikey, cut off the phone lines,” Frank hushed out.

“Wha–the phone lines?” my dad exclaimed. He charged forward after Mikey, who had whisked away to look for the phone lines–I’m assuming he knew exactly where these kinds of things were, because I’m not.

“Sir, if you would please just–” Frank said as he placed his hands on my dad’s shoulders.

“Don’t touch me,” my dad sneered as he slapped at his hands.

Frank shrugged and tilted his head. “Alright… Didn’t want to do this the hard way, but you’ve left me no choice.”

He pulled out his ray gun and pushed it into my dad’s chest, forcing him to back up.

My mom let out a small squeak as Ray also held onto her, his ray gun also brandished. “Sorry about this, ma'am.”

I put a hand through my bangs. I didn’t know exactly what to do and just stood in that small space between the kitchen and my living room kind of gawking at everyone. But now that I took the time to look around, I noticed that everything still looked the same. Same off-white walls, same gray couches, same dark gray carpet… even the kitchen was still uniformly decorated with the same white and gravelly gray palette.

“Leya!” my dad scolded. “What is the meaning of all this?”

“We don’t have anywhere to go. So I thought… I could come back home and they could stay―temporarily. Until we find a place of our own,” I feebly answered. “If I had told you all this out on the porch, you wouldn’t have let them in―or even me!”

“What makes you think telling me inside the house would be any different?” my dad scoffed back.

“Leya, why are you doing this?” my mom whined as she cowered away from Ray. Which was ridiculous because Ray wouldn’t hurt a fly. Maybe a Drac or a BL/ind agent, but not a fly, and certainly not my mom.

I groaned as I crossed my arms. “Look, they’re not going to hurt you! I just… need you two to calm down so we can talk.

My dad gave me a sour look. "Talk? Sure, let’s talk. Let’s talk about why you’re here. How did you even get back here? How are you even alive?”

I scoffed at this remark. “Look.. none of that matters right now! What I need to know right now is where Krys is.”

"Krys?” my mom gasped with a look of anguish.

“Yeah, your other daughter! Where is she? I know you two had to have seen her–Korse told me!”

My parents were eerily quiet as they looked at me with these creepy blank expressions on their faces.

“Where is she?” I could feel tears almost coming out of my eyes. It’s been a year that I’ve been separated from her. That I’ve had no idea where she was. And now I’m so close to seeing her again. It’s just these two people in the way of that!

“You don’t know?” Mom asked me with a crease in her brow.

“How would I know? I’ve been separated from her since the Cleanout! I was out in the Zones for the last year or so!”

“You were in the Zones?” Dad asked, as if it was something to be disgusted by. Like if I caught the black plague or something.

“Look, I’ll tell you about that later! Just–is Krys here?” I looked around and started moving towards the hallway. “Krys!” I turned back to my parents. “Is she here? Are you keeping her from me? Krys!”

“Leya, stop,” Dad demanded.

“Stop what? Just tell me where my sister is!”

“Would you stop shouting?” he asked with a grumble, trying to simultaneously back up from Frank, who was glaring up at him.

“I’ll only stop shouting when you tell me where Krys is!” I exclaimed as I folded my arms and marched up to them both.

“See, this is exactly why it was a bad idea for you to ever get off those pills,” Dad calmly replied, although I kind of wished he had shouted at me. It was a bit worse hearing him in this “indoor voice.”

“I never needed those fucking pills! They only fucked me up–”

"Leya! Language!” Mom gasped and looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

I stared over at her. “Mom, I never needed those fudging pills. They fudged me up and you didn’t even fudging notice because you were too fudging hopped up on your own pills!”

“Don’t talk to your mother like that,” Dad said with an exasperated sigh.“Is this how you got from associating with those rebels… With those… Killjoys? You embarrass me.”

“Hey, enough! Don’t talk to your daughter like that,” Frank retorted as he pushed the barrel of his ray gun further into my dad’s chest. “She came back. She didn’t have to. She knew the risk in coming back, and you know what? Out there, out in the Zones, she still loved you. She still held onto your memories. She never forgot you, and yet you’re the one acting like an asshole to the kid you turned out of the house!”

Dad creased his dark eyebrows as he glared down at Frank, looking pretty menacing, to be honest.

“Who are you to tell me how to treat my own kid? You are nothing but a trashy, tattooed, scruffy, dirtbag! Why would a scumbag like you have any authority over the way I treat my daughter? I’m the one who raised her for 18 years–who the hell do you think you are?”

I narrowed my eyes at this. “His name is Frank and he’s been more family to me than you have been in the last three years!”

While Frank looked back at me in veneration, my dad looked at me like he got slapped in the face. “How dare you…bring these guys into my house, and then you dare to say something like that to me?”

“Don’t act like you care about me,” I replied as I brought my arms across my chest. “If you cared, you never would have disowned me and Krys. You stopped caring about us then, so don’t act like you give a damn about us now.”

“Leya,” Mom told me in her foreboding voice. The voice that usually was followed by a count of “1, 2, 3…” when I was younger.

I turned to her and saw this strange look on her face. It was like she had gone even whiter, and these awkward wrinkles had formed at the corners of her mouth and on her forehead.

I looked back at my dad, still held in place by Frank’s threatening gun.

“Where’s Krys?” I asked again, quieter this time.

He took in a deep breath. Then he looked straight into my eyes.

“Krys is dead.”

It took me a second to understand the string of words. There were only three, but…

“What?” I whispered out.

Dad looked down. “Krysten… she’s dead. She’s no longer alive. She’s…gone.”

I shook my head quickly. “No, you’re wrong…”

“ _She’s dead_ , Leya,” he repeated, hardening the words.

“But… but,” I feebly replied as I felt the blood leave my limbs. “Korse told me. He told me. He said that you identified her a few months ago…”

“Yes, we identified _her body_ ,” Dad continued with a completely straight face. No light in his eyes, no tears, no pain. Nothing.

“We assumed you were dead, too,” mom added in a soft voice. “And then we got a report from the bureau of…”

I felt a wave of cold wash over me and my whole body stiffened. At the same time, I felt myself start to sweat, although my hands tingled like they were numb. The sound in the room went out completely. It was like someone pressed the ‘mute’ button on the world, yet my mom’s lips were still moving and everyone else was looking at me. It’s like the way it sounds when you cover your ears, or when you’re under water–kind of like a dream.

Then everyone started to move in slow motion and they were looking a bit fuzzy. It really was kind of like a dream. No, this _has_ to be a dream. Any minute, I’m going to wake up and start the day over. I’m gonna wake up next to Frank. We’re not going to get a letter. No one’s going to break into the apartment. I won’t have to come back to this house. I’ll start the day for real.

This is all a dream. A horrible fucking dream. Just a nightmare. I’m gonna wake up soon. I’m gonna–

Ow.

The sound turned on again and now my butt hurts. I saw my knees bent on the floor in front of me. Wait, what am I doing on the floor?

“Mikey, help her up!” I heard Frank say. I looked up and saw both him and my dad staring down at me with widened eyes.

“Leya, are you okay?” I heard Mikey frantically whisper to me from my side. I turned my head and saw his face. Then I noticed he had his hands under each of my arms, like he was supporting me from falling. Did I fall down?

“See, this is why you need to be on medication–it’s just like before–all your hysterics–” Dad started off again.

“Shut up! Your daughter just found out her older sister is dead and you’re blaming her for having an emotional reaction?!” Frank snapped.

My heart stung with ice. I can’t take this. There was that word again.

I still hadn’t said a thing to anyone but I stood up. _It’s all just a dream, right?_

“I’m gonna…” But my throat closed up. I couldn’t speak. So I just pointed in the direction of the hallway, where I was going to go to the bathroom. To get the fuck out of here.

The sound became muffled again, but somehow I was able to quickly walk down the hallway and into the bathroom on the right. I turned the light switch on and closed the door. The white marble sink looked the same. There were still white walls and white tile. It looks exactly like I left it, except it’s all clean.

I walked over to the sink and leaned my palms on the edge. I looked up at myself in the mirror. I was pale, almost white in the face. Almost as white as the wall behind me. I felt very cold, and I could swear that any second, I’d see my breath in the air. And the circles under my eyes, they seemed to contrast even more. My eyes… they looked really dark.

I put my head down and tried to breathe through my mouth. It felt like there was a ball in my throat keeping me from getting enough air in my lungs.

The sound seemed to turn back on and I heard the door close, even though I’m sure I had closed it behind me. I whipped my head to the left and saw Mikey standing just in front of the door. His brow was furrowed, but not out of annoyance, how it usually was. Under his long eyebrows, his hazel eyes were fixed totally on me, looking at me with so much concern.

I looked away from him and turned the other way, facing the shower. I don’t want to look at him. Because there’s no way in hell I’d ever dream about him giving me that look. And if this isn’t a dream, then…

“Leya,” I heard him whisper my name, and his boots made soft taps on the tile.

I didn’t answer and I held my arms together. Held myself together, is more like it.

We stayed like this for a while. I stood here, and he seemed to have stayed by the wall. He didn’t say anything else.

I tried to breathe again. It was getting harder. I felt my chest tighten. I turned my head slightly to the right, and saw him from the corner of my eye. He was still looking at me with that same goddamn concerned stare.

“What do you want?” I whispered out.

“Nothing,” he softly replied. “You don’t have to say or do anything if you don’t want to. But if you do, I’m here.”

I looked away from him and leaned back with my arms crossed, resting against the sink. I felt my chest tighten again, and put my right palm to it, trying to breathe out. A noise escaped my lips, that sounded like something between a sob and a sigh.

Mikey quickly looked over at me. I made the mistake of meeting his eyes, and it seemed to strike something within me. The next second, I felt a thin stream of water come from the middle of my left eye down onto my cheek. I kept my mouth shut. I knew if I opened it, some other pitiful noise would come out, and I didn’t want to start that. No, I can’t. Because then that would be admitting that–

I turned around, back to facing the mirror and quickly swiped a hand across my cheek and under my left eye. No, I can’t start that right now. And especially not here. I looked at Mikey through the mirror, and I noticed he kept his eyes down toward his shoes. It was considerate of him not to look at me when I cried. He must have guessed that I didn’t want him to.

I turned back to face him. Why is he here? To comfort me? But he’s not doing the whole concerned questioning and interrogation, and he’s not even telling me “it’s going to be okay.” He’s just standing here. And in a way, this silence is a lot better. It’s better than being lied to.

Because I’m not going to be okay any time soon.

Because–

Because I’m never going to hear Krys’s voice again. I’m never going to see her face again. I’m never going to see her smile again. I’m never going to hear her laugh again. I’m never going to be able to hug her or say goodbye. Or say thank you. I’m never going to be able to do anything with her again. She’s never coming home. She’s gone.

“Mikey,” I started, but once I opened my mouth, my voice came out cracked, and I felt the water flood my lower eyelashes again, in both eyes.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?” I whispered out. It felt like a huge hole just opened up in my stomach and my tears streamed cold down to my chin.

Mikey looked up and quickly stepped forward, sweeping his arms around me. His arms were strong around my back, but gentle. He moved a hand up and cradled the back of my head as he hugged me close to him. I had my hands pressed to his chest, and I cried against them as he held me. He still didn’t say anything.

“She’s gone,” I sobbed out, my voice coming out choked. “She’s been gone all this time. I’m alive and she’s dead… This is all wrong!” My face hurt from the struggle not to completely lose control against my tears. I closed my eyes and kept my forehead pressed against Mikey’s chest, hoping that would ease the physical pain.

I’m glad it’s Mikey who’s in here with me. Out of all the guys, Mikey was the one I connected with the most over my sister. He was the first one I told about her, and he was the one with the close relationship with his older brother. He knew what it felt like to be the little sibling who was always protected. And he knew what it was like to lose an older sibling. If anyone knew remotely what I felt like right now, it was him.

I turned so now I was leaning the side of my head against his chest. My breath was coming easier, although I was still breathing out through my mouth. He continued to stroke my hair for the next minute or so, however long it took for me to stop crying.

Once I stopped, I raised my head and Mikey slightly lessened his grip on me, although he didn’t let go. He bent his head down and stroked the hair on my left temple before he kissed my forehead. Then he stroked his hand back down along my hair.

Stop it. Stop being so wonderful. I don’t deserve this.

I looked back down and started to shake my head, unable to talk. I felt my eyes water again. This prompted Mikey to hold me even tighter and he even bent his knees so that his face was more on level with mine.

“What is it? Do you want me to leave?” he whispered to me.

I shook my head quickly.

“What can I do? I’ll do whatever you want me to,” he continued earnestly. “Anything.”

I looked up at him, getting ready to protest to this. But his face was only an inch away from mine and his eyes were misty, but bright, and had so much care in them. So much selflessness. His dark hair fell a bit over his right eye, but it couldn’t hide the way he concentrated wholly on me. Or the way I felt his right hand resting on the back of my neck. Or the way his lips were slightly parted, holding in a breath.

I lost all restraint.

I gripped the lapels of Mikey’s coat, stood on my toes, and leaned forward to meet his mouth with my lips. I closed my eyes as I gently pressed against his soft lips, which held no resistance to my touch. Mikey stayed still and kept his arms around me until I pulled away and stood back on my heels.

A few seconds was all I needed.

“Thank you,” I whispered out as I looked back down towards his chest. I still felt cold, and my breath came out shakily.

Then I looked at my hands still on his chest and reality came crashing down. My spine bristled like it had been pricked by 100 needles.

What had I just done?

I’ve been told that Krys is dead, and here I am–five minutes later–kissing Mikey in the bathroom, while everyone else is still in the living room?!

This was wrong. This was wrong on so many levels!

I didn’t give Mikey time to say anything because once I realized what I had done, I forced myself out of his hold with a light push against his chest. I didn’t even want to look at him, or see how he reacted. I wish I could take the whole thing back. God, what did I do?!

I tried to stop thinking and focused on walking out of that bathroom as fast as I could, while I half-wished that my rapidly beating heart would actually explode in my chest and kill me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's narrated by Frank (there may be a couple more chapters narrated by Frank just fyi)

I had been arguing with Leya’s dad while she went down that hallway. I know it’s probably because of the pills, but the fact that they can’t even recognize the harm they’re doing by not reacting… it’s painful to watch. From what I’d heard Leya tell me about her dad, and how I’d seen her break down because of how much she missed him, I thought he would be a pretty decent guy–not this asshole.

“Do you know how much that kid has had to go through since she was kicked out of this house?” I asked as I pushed the barrel of my ray gun into his chest.

He grabbed at it and glared at me, those dark, fiercely arched eyebrows looking pretty intimidating, to be honest.

“She made the choice to affiliate with you rebels. She made the choice to go out to the Zones.”

“Yeah, because if she stayed here in Battery City, she would have got killed!” I argued back.

Before he could open his mouth to argue with me, Leya came rushing back out of the hallway, her face looking pale, wet with tears, and her eyes wide, yet slightly hooded over. I’ve never seen her look like this before. And I’ve seen this girl cry quite a few times. She never looked this… _broken_.

Mikey emerged from the hallway just a few seconds after, looking a bit harried as well. Clearly, telling him to go in there to look after her didn’t do much good.

Leya’s dad pushed at me and this time, I didn’t know what to do, so I let him go as he walked up closer to Leya.

“Dad,” Leya called out with tear-filled eyes. “How did it happen?”

He looked down. “Why would you want to know such a morbid–”

“How did it happen?!” she shouted, visibly shaking in front of us. I wanted to go and hold her or something. She looked like she might collapse again. Why the fuck was Mikey just standing there staring at his feet?

Leya’s mom cleared her throat. “Last September, there was a riot between rebels and the police force in District 9. It was very violent. They had to close the streets for three days. Nearly a hundred bodies were lined up on the pavement. We were called in to inspect and identify if one of them was Krysten. The tattoo on her wrist… that’s what gave it away.”

I saw Leya’s eyes widen. I think the same thought went through her head as mine: something so bad had happened to her sister that they couldn’t just identify her by her face. FUCK.

Her mom swallowed and continued, “We thought for sure that you’d be dead, too. Because… well…”

“Because I was smaller and weaker than her,” Leya finished up with a tightening of her jaw.

“Well, we thought that you might be with her–but no other body went unidentified that matched up with you. So we contacted police and ordered a search for you. They promised us they’d go looking for you, even if the search took them out to the Zones, because you were a top student. And then in November, we got a letter from the SCARECROW investigation bureau. It was a confirmation of your death.”

Leya creased her eyebrows. “Confirmation?”

“Said that you attacked armed officials, and were killed in a struggle,” her dad added with a frown.

“Bullshit!” I spat out. Leya’s parents shot fierce looks at me.

Leya briefly glanced over to me, then calmly replied to her parents, “I did die. For a minute or two.”

I looked back at her, then back to her parents. “Leya’s heart stopped because she protected us, and in doing so, protected an entire community out in the Zones. The BL/ind agents were the ones who attacked us.”

Her dad frowned at me. Clearly he didn’t believe a word I just said. Which was stupid.

“Wait… “ Leya started, her brow furrowed, “So that whole time… they went looking for me because they found Krys… and because you told them I was still missing?” She said all this slowly, her eyes growing wider with each word. Her face was pulled into a grimace. “That’s why they came to the house in Zone 18–that’s why Korse needed to know my name… and that’s why Diamond and the others–”

She didn’t finish that thought and grabbed at her chest. Fuck, this was shitty. I can see that look in her eyes. That guilty look that I thought I would never see again. She thinks this is all her fault.

“We wanted you to come back safe,” her mom said in a soft tone.

Leya looked up with a harshly bent eyebrow. “Yeah, _okay_!”

“We mean it. Leya, you’re our only daughter now. Our only child,” her mom continued in that placid voice.

Leya swallowed and then asked, "So you’ll let me stay?”

“Yes,” her mom immediately answered.

“And my friends?” Leya asked with a straight face.

Her dad glared at me. “No. Absolutely not.”

Leya blinked as she turned to him. “Let my friends stay here.”

Her father’s eyes widened. “No.”

“LET THEM STAY,” she almost shouted. “You should know by now that BL/ind is full of deception. They were wrong about me being dead and they’re wrong about Killjoys and rebels being bad guys. These guys are good. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be alive.”

“Okay,” her mom finally said. Her dad shot a creased look at her, but said nothing.

“And you two,” Leya continued, “you’re getting off those pills, and I’m finding every single capsule in the house and destroying it.”

“Leya, calm down. You–”

“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN,” she growled. She was still shaking a lot. “Krys is dead. The person who meant the most to me in this world is gone. And it’s taking everything in me to keep it together, so DON’T tell me to calm down when every fiber of my being wants to rip apart.”

She brought a hand to her forehead and sharply inhaled. “I’m sorry to put this on you guys, but Frank, Ray… Please watch my parents. I have to go lie down.”

“Of course, Leya,” I replied. Ray nodded.

Leya turned around, and Mikey was in the way of hr path. She moved awkwardly around him, not making eye contact and pulling her arms in like she didn’t want to touch him. Mikey continued to look down toward the ground.

What the hell was all that about?

“Ma'am, would you like to sit down?” Ray asked Leya’s mom as he extended an arm toward the sofa. “My name is Ray, by the way. I’m sorry we had to meet you like this.”

She swallowed. “My name is Barbara. And, um, yes, I’d like to sit down.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at them as they walked over to sit on one of the couches.

I cleared my throat as I put my gun away. “Well, this was an awkward way to meet, huh?”

He just kept his eyes narrowed at me and shouldered his way to the living room next to his wife.

I exhaled. This was a mess.

  
  


To make sure that Leya’s parents didn’t run out on us or rat us to the police, we kept the phone lines unplugged. While Mikey and Ray stayed with them in the living room to keep guard, I got around to finding all the pills inside this house and flushed them down the toilet. And believe me, I looked _everywhere._ And it took me a couple hours to do it.

We managed to have dinner with them, more properly introducing ourselves and getting them to warm up a little bit more to us. Well, as much as they could while being pill-popping emotional zombies.

“Mikey, can you get Leya?” I asked as we all sat down.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said with a shake of his head.

“Why?” I asked as I creased an eyebrow. “She needs to eat.”

He looked at me with these sort of pleading eyes. What the fuck?

“Yes, she probably should eat,” Barbara chimed in a bit robotically. It was still weird how nonchalant the parents were about Leya having an emotional breakdown.

“I’ll go get her,” Ray suggested with a cheerful smile as he stood up.

I saw Mikey’s shoulders relax as he breathed out, looking down at the table. What the hell–did something happen when I told him to look after Leya in the bathroom? Did he just make things worse–is that why he’s hesitant to even look at her?

Ray came back in a couple minutes, but he came back alone and had a disappointed frown on his face. “Leya doesn’t want to come out.”

I sighed. “She has to be starving. Did you try and force her?”

Ray tilted his head and gave me a disapproving look. “Frank, she’s in mourning. I’m not going to force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do.”

I scoffed. “I don’t give a shit if she’s in mourning–she still needs to take care of herself.” I stood up from my chair, as everyone watched me with their brows slightly raised.

Ray stepped forward and placed a hand on my chest. “Frank–Lay off.”

I glared at him. “You know, you and Mikey are the ones who are always worrying too much about her physical well-being and now that she actually needs to be taken care of, neither one of you is willing to do anything to help!”

Mikey looked down and Ray closed his eyes and sighed.

“Maybe just bring food to her room, then. She still looks pretty out of it. I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference, though,” Ray told me with sad brown eyes.

While the others started to eat, I tried to find anything in their refrigerator and pantry that seemed edible. The problem was that since her parents were already hooked on pills, they didn’t mind their food being filled with chemicals, either. I ended up making her a sandwich and placed an apple and a pear on the plate. Hopefully, she’d want to eat some of it.

I softly knocked before I entered her room, and saw her lying on her side, facing the wall. I felt a heaviness tug in my chest, seeing her like this, so hurt. I don’t know what she’s going through. I never had an older sister or brother. And I certainly hadn’t lost one to this stupid war.

“Hey, Leya,” I said in a quiet voice. I feel like I have to be careful around her, even with the volume of my voice.

She turned around and then looked up at me. “Oh… Hi, Frank,” she said in a quiet voice as she sat up on her elbows and tucked her knees in.

I came and set the plate of food on her bedside table, then sat down next to her on the bed. She glanced at the food for a second, then she looked back down at her knees.

“How are you feeling?” I stupidly asked. I didn’t know what else to say.

Leya briefly glanced an eye toward me then cleared her throat. "Not good.”

I closed my eyes, feeling even worse. Then I opened them and saw her staring at her knees, a little too intensely to be casual.

I put a hand on her arm. “Leya, I’m sor–”

“Please don’t,” she blurted out as she edged away from me and brought a hand up to her bangs. “I can’t talk right now, Frank. I’m sorry, but can you please go?”

I felt a bit bad, but I’m not the one who just lost a sister. “Yeah, I’ll go.”

I reached forward and kissed the side of her hair. “Get some rest.”

She weakly nodded and sniffed, still looking down at her knees.

  
  


Leya slept until the morning. Mikey, Ray and I slept in the living room, taking turns to keep watch by her parents’ bedroom, to make sure they didn’t try anything to out us. It went by smoothly. I got about four hours of sleep.

Leya was still very quiet in the morning, although now she at least made an effort to eat breakfast. This was the quietest I’d ever seen her.

Her parents had seemed to become slightly more agreeable, now that they hadn’t taken their daily dose of zombie capsules. They were still irked by rebels being in their house, but they had started to comfort their daughter. Which was something, I suppose.

“Leya, we’re very sorry about the way it was broken to you,” Barbara said as she hugged her.

When Leya pulled away, she looked like she was containing so much, the way her mouth was tightened and her eyes looked like they were straining to stay open.

“And know that you’re welcome home. Always,” Tony said, looking nicer than I’d ever seen him as he moved forward and placed an arm on Leya’s shoulder.

Leya swallowed and replied shortly, “Thanks.”

They had to go to work, so we were left alone in the house all day.

After breakfast, Leya just went back to her room and slept. She didn’t come out except for when we asked her to come eat. Even then, she barely ate two bites before claiming she was tired and not hungry.

  
  


The next day, it was the same thing. She stayed in bed all morning and when we asked her to eat lunch, she refused. It was starting to get frustrating. Even if we brought her food, she wouldn’t eat it. And her eyes were almost always red and puffy, her nose slightly rosy. Like she was just crying the whole time. I’m worried. I feel like she needs help, but I don’t know what I can do.

And as much as I’d like to stay here with her, she won’t really have it. And maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t really need us, because we still have a job to do. The world isn’t going to stop just because one girl died. And we’re still at risk of getting discovered by Gerard’s forces.

“I think we need to find Rina,” I suggested to Mikey and Ray in the living room after lunch.

“Rina? The secretary?” Ray questioned.

“Yeah, that Rina. The only Rina I know,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Why?” Mikey asked.

“Because she’s got info on the research lab.”

“Research lab? Why would you want to go back there?” Ray asked me with a grumbly voice and a disapproving stare.

“To find out what exactly has gone on in Gerard’s melon,” I irritably replied.

“What makes you think she’ll cooperate?” Mikey asked.

“I’ll get her off her pills again,” I explained with a shrug. “She’s pretty cool when she’s not on them.”

Mikey frowned at me. “I thought you said that she had more problems… like her head got messed like mine. What if taking her off the pills doesn’t work alone?”

“Then I’ll force her to cooperate—shit, Mikey!”

“Just checking…” Mikey said as he looked down toward his legs, which were crossed over one another.

“How do we go about finding Rina?” Ray asked.

“Easy. We have internet now,” I gestured toward the computer that was inside the den.

“What–are you just going to look her up?” Mikey snorted.

“Yeah,” I replied with a raise of my eyebrows.

“Be careful. Everything’s monitored,” Ray cautioned. “If anyone questions why you’re searching her up from this house, we could be in trouble.”

“Relax, Ray,” I replied. “No one’s watching this house closely. Or else we’d have already been found out.” I got up and went over to the computer, which was on top of this large, black office desk in the den next to the living room. I opened the internet browser and typed in a search for “Rina Dorevsky.”

“You think you’re actually going to find out where she lives from this search?” Ray asked as he stood next to me, arms crossed.

I clicked through some profiles on the internet, and saw a picture of Rina, stone serious face with the dark long hair and the dark eyes. “Well, here’s a phone number.” I looked down and noticed that more info was included on her blood type and age. She’s 27 with blood type O-negative. I pulled up another tab to look up a map of Battery City blood bank. Then I looked up the registered users through the O-negative donors and entered Rina’s name. Sure enough, a profile came up with her full name, phone number, and address.

“Well, wasn’t that easy?” I turned and gave Ray a smug look.

“Let’s just hope we don’t get police barging in on us later today,” he grumbled back.

I found a piece of paper and a pen and copied down the address before closing everything on the computer and shutting it off. As I folded the paper into my pocket, I announced, “I’m gonna go visit Rina right now.”

“You’ll need backup, won’t you? In case things get ugly,” Mikey suggested as he crossed his arms.

I nodded my head. “Yeah, probably. But someone should stay here with Leya,“ I told both Mikey and Ray. They looked between each other and remained silent.

I raised an eyebrow. "I’m not leaving her here alone. And I can’t take her. Not with the way she’s been… processing.”

“Ray should stay!” Mikey blurted out.

This was unusual. I would have thought he’d jump at the chance to hang out with Leya. Not the opposite.

“Alright,” Ray replied with a shrug. “You sure you’ll be okay without me, though? I mean… don’t do anything stupid.”

“We’ll be fine,” I answered. On second thought, maybe it was good to have Ray here. He and Leya rarely ever clash, and he’s pretty nurturing. If anyone can get her to eat, it’s probably Ray.

“Okay. Watch yourselves out there,” Ray warned.

Mikey and I nodded and we shortly left into the car. I drove. It was nice to be outside, even though it is Battery City. We hadn’t really been able to process much beyond staying at Leya’s house, watching her parents, and making sure they didn’t sell us out to the police.

“You got the address in there?” I asked Mikey. He was punching in buttons on the GPS of the car’s dashboard.

“Yeah… got it.”

“So…” I started. I hadn’t really spoken to Mikey one-on-one in a while. He had been looking pretty broken down ever since the whole thing with Leya’s sister. “How you holdin’ up?”

“I’m fine! Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked while blinking a lot.

“I dunno,” I answered as I scratched behind my ear. “It’s a pretty heavy atmosphere. And you know… you kind of had to deal with Gerard ‘dying’ last year. It’s completely normal for you to be feeling down.”

“Oh,” Mikey replied. He paused for a few seconds. I was used to this. Whenever he wanted to express himself, but found it difficult, he always spaced out his sentences.

“I’m fine with the whole Gee thing. I’m not worrying about myself.”

“You’ve been taking his brainwash thing pretty well, though.” I remembered how Leya said he seemed happy. And it’s true, he did seem happier. Until now, anyway.

“Well… he’s alive. Which means there’s a chance to save him. And I know all of this, it’s not his fault. He’s just fucked up in the head. Like I was.”

I nodded. We were quiet for the next minute.

“How long do you think it’s going to be before Leya gets better? …if ever…” I mused out loud with a sigh.

Mikey didn’t answer me. I turned to him, and he looked awkward in the face. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Her older sister died. She’s been looking for her ever since we met her. Before that. I don’t think she ever expected her to be dead.”

I looked ahead to the gray road, frowning. I’m pretty sure I told her a couple of times that she was going to find her sister. I might have promised her that. God, I feel like a piece of shit now.

We made it in front of the address I got from the blood donor website. It was a two-story house, modern in its box-like construct, small garden lights illuminating the cement path to the front door. It had just gotten dark, but we couldn’t be sure that Rina was home yet, and there was no garage and no car here. I parked the car on the other side of the road, and me and Mikey waited an hour before we saw a white car pull up onto the driveway of the house. Out walked a woman with dark hair and a business suit on.

“That’s her,” I told Mikey. We gave her the courtesy of ten minutes before we decided to go up to her door.

“You think she’ll recognize us? You know, from that night at BLI?” Mikey asked as we stepped out of the car.

“The point here is we’re trying to get her to remember me. Of course, she might still be pissed at me even then…” I thought back to how I had promised her safety in return for her help. It ended up in her capture and brain invasion. “I’ll let her punch me once she’s all good.”

We walked up the path to her door, and I rang the doorbell. I at least hoped that she wouldn’t recognize us as Killjoys first. We had kind of terrorized her back when we made our move on BLI headquarters.

The door opened and Rina stood there, dressed in one of her fancy white blouses and black slacks, but with her hair pinned up, stray strands coming out, glasses on, and only white socks on her feet.

She looked at me hard. Then asked, “Who are you?”

I cleared my throat. “Hey, Rina, um… it’s me, Frank. Um, I need to talk to you.”

She blinked her eyes quickly, then looked past me at Mikey. He sheepishly smiled at her, then she moved her eyes back to me.

“Do you come with a last name, Frank?” she asked.

“Iero. Frank Iero.”

She raised her eyebrows and “hmmph"ed at me. “What do you need to talk about?”

I cleared my throat. “It’s really not appropriate to speak of it outside.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t see why anything should not be appropriate to speak of on my doorstep.”

I swallowed. “Well, uh, it’s about research. Top secret research. The kind concerning… electro radiation.”

“You mean electromagnetic radiation?” she asked, her eyes narrowing even further.

Fuck, I even screwed that up.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” I said with a small laugh to try and ease the awkward.

“The research being conducted on electromagnetic radiation has been shut down for weeks now.” Rina had a hand on the door, gradually moving it closer to a shut position.

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll cut the crap. Rina, we were friends. At least, I’d like to think we were. But you don’t remember me. And be honest… there’s a hole in your memory, isn’t there?”

Her eyes widened and then narrowed at me again. “How could you possibly–”

“I know why you have that hole in your head, and I know what’s missing,” I told her, trying my best to sound both urgent and friendly. “Please, let me in. I want to help you.”

She looked between me and Mikey. “You must think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

I exchanged awkward glances with Mikey. “No! Not at all!”

“You’re the Killjoys that hijacked BLI headquarters,” she spat out as she crossed her arms. “You should be in jail right now for what you’ve done.”

So she did recognize us. But she’s acting more calm about this than I would have expected.

“What do you want from me? Why do you keep going after me?” she asked, her voice hot with hostility.

“I think a better question to ask is why you haven’t called the police yet,” I told her.

Her eyes briefly widened, then she pursed her lips. “Come inside.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, then looked back at Mikey, whose eyes had also widened.

“Well, hurry, before someone sees you,” she hissed. Mikey and I quickly walked through her doorway and she promptly closed it on us.

I was just starting to look around her house when I felt something snag on my neck.

"Oof!” I let out in pain as I got pushed and smacked my forehead into the wall next to the door.

It was Rina, who had a hand grasped around the back of my neck, her long manicured fingernails digging into my skin. It also felt like she had something pressed up against the middle of my back. Like a ray gun.

“What the hell?” I groaned. I looked to the left and saw Mikey get his ray gun out.

“Mikey, don’t hurt her–just back off,” I quickly told him. He looked at me, his eyes wide in alarm, but he put down his ray gun.

“Why do you know so much about me?” Rina growled from behind me.

“I’ve told you,“ I answered into the wall. "We’re friends. But you can’t remember because… because they took out your memory.”

“Are we friends, too?” she asked Mikey.

Mikey raised his eyebrows, then answered, “Oh, no! I never even met you before we went into BLI that day.”

She moved closer to me, and I could feel her breath on my ear. “So tell me, how am I supposedly friends with a Killjoy?”

“You were helping me, to get into the research lab. It was around Valentine’s day. You got me a meeting with the Director.”

I felt Rina release her grip on me and then I tentatively turned around to face her. She had her arms crossed and furrowed her brow. “That can’t be…“ She turned around and went up her white, carpeted stairs, whisking away into one of her rooms upstairs.

I rubbed at the sore part of my neck and looked to Mikey, who exchanged an equal look of confusion with me.

Rina came back down in a minute with a small book in her hands. “ _February 15_ _th_ _: this guy named Jim came in asking for a meeting with the Director. He seems kind of stupid but you agreed to help him because he’s going to propose your research plan to her. His meeting’s at 6pm on Monday_.”

She closed the journal. “I’ve been writing in a journal for two years, in case… in case anything happened to me. This was the last journal entry I had written until I woke up in the hospital a week and a half later.” She looked at me hard. “You and this guy, Jim… are you related?”

I nodded my head. “Well, yeah. Jim was the name I gave you as my alias.”

Rina cocked up a dark eyebrow. “Where did we meet for dinner then?”

I racked my brain… it was a place that sounded like a shape… “H-Hexagon?” I guessed.

Rina took in a deep breath and her eyes got bigger. “It really is you, then…”

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to tell you so many times now!” I argued, still feeling the pain in my forehead from where she pushed me into the wall.

“So… you really know what happened to me?” she asked. “They told me that in the blast, I got hit in the head with a piece of debris, and that’s why my memory is gone. That’s why I have this scar on my head.”

“You mean like this?” Mikey asked as he pushed up a section of his hair and revealed the white scar he had on the side of his head.

Rina’s eyes softly widened. “Yes…”

“This is from Korse ordering an operation on my brain. An operation that made me lose a large part of my memory,” Mikey told her as he took his hand from his head.

Rina turned back to me. “Well, I knew something else was not adding up. I couldn’t figure out why I’d be up in administration–unless I was there for this meeting with this guy Jim. But even that wouldn’t make sense.”

I swallowed. “It’s because I wasn’t really up there for a meeting. I was up there to kill the Director.”

Her eyes widened.

“And you didn’t get hit with debris. You were up there because you saw she had called up her henchmen, who were beating me to a pulp and you tried to stop it. Then they were going to kill the both of us, so I got us out of there, took you back to my apartment, and then we went to the research lab to get what I was really after.”

“What were you really after?” Rina asked.

“My friend. Gerard,” I swallowed. “The guy you call the Director now. The old Director had taken him and I needed to figure out what happened, and I was pretty certain that since Mikey here got taken and worked on and lost his memory, then something similar must have happened to Gerard. Of course, that’s all confirmed now that he’s gone from Anakin to Darth Vader on us.”

Rina tensed her brow. “The Director was a Fabulous Killjoy… and you two were rumored to be Fabulous Killjoys… You’re all alive, then?! But… why… the papers all said you were dead!”

It was annoying having to go through these explanations all over. “Yeah. The Director was covering it all up. And you were going to help me find out if Gerard was a test subject for the memory experiments, but then we got found out. I got dumped in the Borderlands, and I didn’t know what happened to you. A month later, I find you working at BLI again, but with no idea who I am.”

“All I remember is waking up in the hospital,” Rina told me with a shake of her head.

“Same thing happened to me, too,” Mikey chimed in. “I couldn’t remember the last six months of my life.”

“I don’t even know how much I don’t remember,” Rina replied as she looked down. “Life in Battery City is pretty routine. Except for the last few days I had written about in my journal. If only I had been able to write down one more day… then all of this…” She had brought a fist up to her mouth as she worked this all out in her head. I was surprised to see her acting so calm and normal. Even after finding out we were Killjoys.

“Are you taking pills?” I asked her.

She looked up at me. “No. At first, I was… but then one day I found this small message waiting for me, taped inside my bedside drawer, 'don’t take the pills.’ I thought I was going crazy at first, which only made me want to take the pills even more. Then you showed up to my desk a few weeks ago, looking so familiar, asking about what happened to me. And then I found this journal tucked under my bedside. After that, after the Director died, I started to have questions about everything. ”

She took off her glasses to rub at her eyes, then looked at me. “So, there was something I’d seen too much of, that they would go as far as to remove my memory. The Director’s bad side, huh? Well now that she’s dead… and your friend is the new Director… this presents a new problem, doesn’t it?”

I cleared my throat. “I need to know what happened to Gerard. If we can know what went on in his head, maybe we can… I don’t know, reverse it? Or at least fix it somehow?”

Rina narrowed an eye at me before she put her glasses back on. “Memory isn’t something you can just turn on and off like a light switch. Going inside someone’s brain presents the possibility of all kinds of harm and things don’t always work locally—memory isn’t in just one part of the brain and cannot be mapped. It would be near impossible to manually reverse the process of what has been done to your friend.”

“We don’t think it’s something wrong with his memory,” Mikey cut in.

Rina turned to him. “Then what is it?”

“That’s what we need your help to figure out,” I told her with a smirk.

She turned back to me and sighed. “What do you need?”

“Just a visit to the research lab. You know about passcodes and all that, right?”

“Well, technically, if it’s not in my department, I’m not supposed to have access to it,” she smirked, “But yes, I do know all the passcodes for all the main computers.”

I grinned. “So… you’ll help us?”

She sighed. “I guess. What do I get out of this, though?”

I paused to think. I didn’t know what to offer her. Last time I promised her safety, and clearly that hadn’t worked out well.

“Whatever you want,” I answered.

She breathed out a laugh. “You’re pretty desperate, aren’t you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, so… will you help us?”

She extended a hand. “Well, you did come back to fill in the hole in my memory. I guess that’s worth something.”

I took her hand and shook it. “Thanks, Rina!”

She smiled. “Meet me Saturday at the Research Lab. 6 a.m.”

  
  


Mikey and I drove home in the dark, quiet, though triumphant. It felt good to have Rina back on my side. This is the first time I’ve really been happy about something in the last three weeks.

We got back around seven o'clock and to our pleasant surprise, Leya, Ray, and her parents were eating dinner.

“Oh, you’re back just in time!” Barbara cheered. “Come have a seat!”

Since her withdrawal from the pills, she was a lot nicer to all of us. Tony was still kind of cold toward me, but he had seemed to grow a lot warmer toward Leya. Even now, they were sitting next to each other. But once Leya turned her head toward me and Mikey, she stiffened up.

“I think I’m gonna go lie down now,” Leya said as she got up. All of us looked at her in concern. That would probably drive me crazy, but she didn’t seem to take notice.

“But you’ve barely had a few bites,” Barbara protested.

“I’m… I’m not that hungry,” she said again. I had to strain so hard not from grabbing her and forcing her to sit back down. I’ve had enough of this. And I’m pretty sure everyone else has, too.

“We’ll leave some for you if you’re feeling hungry later,” Tony told her with a smile.

“Thanks,” Leya said before she whipped back around and went to her room again.

Barbara sighed as she looked down at her plate.

After dinner, Barbara and Tony went upstairs to sleep. A symptom of withdrawal was lethargy and muscle weakness, which tended to wear them out after a day at work. As soon as they left upstairs, Mikey, Ray, and I cleaned up the table. Once we had all sat down once more in the living room, my mind returned to Leya, probably curled up in her dark room again. I couldn’t stand that thought.

"Hey Mikey, you wanna go check on Leya?” I asked. Lately, I’d been the one doing the most checking up on her. And she spent all day with Ray. Maybe spending time with Mikey would do her good.

Mikey’s eyes widened after I asked. “Umm, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why? You’ve barely seen her these past three days. Have you even talked to her? I feel like out of everyone here, you’d probably be the best to talk to, since you kind of went through the same thing.”

He swallowed and continued to look down.

I kept my eyes narrowed at him. “What, are you ignoring Leya?”

“No!” he protested.

Ray stood up and cleared his throat. “I’ll go check on her.”

As Ray left, Mikey and I stayed here in awkward silence. Something was up with him. And the way he’d been acting distant to Leya, especially at a time like this, it was unforgivable. Leya had been acting distant to him, too, now that I think about it. She hadn’t spoken to him, hadn’t directly looked at him… it was all too weird. I mean, of course, Leya’s sad right now… but it’s really weird that they’re both not talking to each other.

I stood up and tugged on Mikey’s arm. “Get up. We have to talk.”

He looked up at me with nervous wide eyes as I pulled him outside to the back porch. There was just a small garden out here, not big enough to really call it a back yard. More like a little alleyway garden. A garden alley.

I closed the glass door behind us, so no one would overhear our conversation.

“What the fuck is going on with you?” I spat out to Mikey.

“What are you talking about?” he questioned with wide eyes.

I tightened my mouth. “Did you say something to Leya? When she went down that hallway right after finding out about her sister, she came back out of there looking no better. But you were with her for five minutes. And then she didn’t want to look at you after and she hasn’t spoken to you and you haven’t spoken to her since. What the hell did you say to her?”

“Nothing!” Mikey protested as he shook his head.

Oh no. No. I’ve only seen this face in the early years of touring. Usually the face he had mornings after he had hooked up with a chick. Why the fuck did he have that face now?

I grabbed at his shirt collar. “Mikey I swear to god–what the fuck did you do?”

“She kissed me!” he blurted out as he threw his head back away from me.

I froze.

WHAT. DID. HE. JUST. SAY.

“What?!” I hissed out as I clung to his collar.

Mikey reached his hand up to mine, trying to pry it off. “She kissed me,” he hushed out.

I felt a chill go through my whole body.

NO. I DON’T GIVE A SHIT IF MIKEY IS LIKE MY LITTLE BROTHER. IF HE’S RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING HER LOOK THE WAY SHE DID WHEN SHE CAME OUT OF THAT BATHROOM–

“How could you–did you encourage this?!” I sputtered out.

“I–Well–She was upset–I was hugging her–and I don’t know–she just kissed me!” he whispered out. “It was really quick!”

“Then why did she look so upset!” I shouted.

“I don’t know! She just bolted right after she did it,” Mikey answered.

I sighed and let go of his collar. He rubbed at it, then turned toward the door. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you saying sorry?” I scoffed as I stared at him. “I mean, hey… we’ve all seen how chummy you two are… I just didn’t think you’d actually _go there_ with Leya!”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen…” Mikey protested with an anguished look in his eyes. “I mean, I thought if she liked anyone like that, it was you!”

My eyes widened. “WHAT? ME?”

Mikey cleared his throat. “Well… you two sleep together all the time, and you’ve both had chemistry since you met, and then the way she talks about you, and she gets so happy whenever you’re around–”

“SHE’S LIKE MY LITTLE SISTER, DUDE! I WOULD NEVER GO THERE WITH HER–WHAT THE HELL? How can you even say that when Jamia’s still in the picture?”

Mikey looked down, embarrassed. “Well, I certainly didn’t think she’d ever go there with me…”

“Mikey, be fucking straight up with me. Do you like Leya?”

He awkwardly looked to the side.

“Shit, you hesitated,” I muttered out. “Fuck.”

“Hold on, Frank! I mean… I don’t think I do…” he started out.

“Dude, she’s nineteen!” I yelled out.

“I know that!” he cried out.

“And what about Alicia? Does Leya even know about her?”

“No…” Mikey said as he looked down. “I don’t even know how the Alicia situation works into anything right now…”

I sighed. Fuck, this was a mess. That’s why Leya’s been so weird around Mikey, and that’s why he’s been weird around her. The last thing she needs right now is an awkward situation and a ruined friendship.

“Listen,” I told Mikey in a quieter voice, “Leya’s in a vulnerable state right now. And if you’re responsible for breaking her heart, I swear to God, I’ll punch out your teeth.”

Mikey narrowed an eye at me. “I’m not–I would never hurt her!”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not exactly what I mean. If she likes you, dude, then you have to deal with that. Appropriately. You can’t just ignore her. She probably thinks you rejected her or something. She’s probably humiliated on top of everything else she’s feeling.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do? She’s the one who ran out before we could even talk about what happened.”

“The main thing for us is to be there for Leya right now. Even if that means… letting her kiss you and reciprocating affection.”

“I’m not trying to lead her on or anything…” Mikey argued with a tensed wrinkle in his forehead.

“Then what are you doing? You could have stopped her, right?” I asked.

“Would you have stopped her?” Mikey asked.

I had to think about this. But before I could really come to a conclusion, the glass door had slid open. It was Ray who opened it.

“She’s awake now. Still kind of out of it, though,” he told us with a half smile, half pout.

“Did she try to kiss you?” I asked him.

“What?” Ray bent his eyebrows.

“Frank!” Mikey yelled at me with that scrunch of his mouth he always made when he got embarrassed.

“Am I missing something here?” Ray asked, looking between me and Mikey.

“Leya and Mikey kissed,” I said as I crossed my arms.

Mikey’s mouth opened in exasperation. “ _She_ kissed me–that was it.”

“What?!” Ray exclaimed.

“You sure you didn’t kiss back?” I asked Mikey, narrowing my eyes at him. He was being too damn defensive.

“I purposely didn’t,” Mikey argued. “Like you said, I was just there for her.”

He looked down. I could see that this was tearing him up inside.

I exhaled profusely as I crossed my arms and paced to the window. “I’m gonna go see her,” I made up my mind.

“Frank–wait!” Mikey protested as he reached an arm out to me.

“Relax, Mikey. I’m not going to bring that up with her. What happened between you and her was private. You two are going to talk it over yourselves.”

Mikey swallowed and shrank back.

I went down the hallway, past the bathroom, and down to her room. I softly knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I heard Leya’s small voice from the other side.

I slowly pushed the door open and saw her sitting up in her bed. She had a lamp on, which gave a warm glow to the white walls and purple bedsheets.

She looked very pale and her eyes looked half-lidded, as if she was still half-asleep.

“Hey,” I told her as I came up and sat on the bed.

“Hey,” she quietly replied.

The impulse in me wanted to ask if she was okay, but I already knew the answer to that. So I just put a hand on her knee and squeezed at it.

This worked. She looked up and smiled at me.

“How are my parents?” she asked.

“They’re fine. Asleep.”

She nodded. “Good. It took me only a few days to get back to normal when I got off my pills.”

I squeezed at her knee again. “You know, you’ve been very brave these past few days.”

She snorted out a laugh. “No, I haven’t.”

I looked at her with a hard stare. “Yes, you have. Coming back here in the first place was very brave. And you’ve had to deal with more than any of us. And out of any of us, you deserve a rest the most.”

She looked down. “I’ve been sleeping too much, haven’t I?”

I shook my head. “No, you’ve been doing what your body’s been telling you to do.”

She looked over at me with a pouted lip. “Don’t think I don’t notice the way everyone’s been looking at me like some frail little bird about to die.”

I felt myself blush around my neck. That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking of her.

“Well, it’s a little concerning when you don’t eat,” I answered, clearing my throat.

“You all seem to forget that I’ve gone days without eating in the Zones and ended up fine.”

“But this isn’t healthy, Leya,” I told her with a look of concern.

She looked over at me from the side. “I know…” she muttered.

We were quiet for a few seconds. Then I looked her in the eye.

“Hey… I don’t want you to be involved with us and this whole nasty business with Gerard anymore.”

She looked up at me with a furrowed brow. As expected.

“You’ve already been through enough,“ I continued, making sure to keep my voice non-confrontational. "Let us deal with Gerard ourselves. After all, your mission’s over.”

"No, it’s not,” Leya said as she shook her head.

I sighed. “I’m not going to put you through anymore shit. Especially shit that could get you killed.”

“What about you? You think I like the idea of you doing something that could get you killed?” She looked up at me with these sad puppy eyes and fuck it! Why? Why did she care so much about me?

“This is my fight,” I replied with a sigh. “This has been my fight all along. And I’m sticking it out until the end. Until I get Gerard back.”

“And you expect me to just try and live a normal life in Battery City?” She had an eyebrow raised.

“Well, your parents are back to normal…” I tried to argue.

“But this is Battery City!” she protested. “What do you expect me to do with myself here?”

I sighed. I didn’t know the answer to that question. “We’ll figure it out.”

She reached forward and leaned her chin onto my shoulder. “Can we stop talking about this?”

“Yeah, sure.” I reached over and patted her arm.

She sighed onto me.

“Frank, why does everyone leave?” she asked after a few seconds.

I turned my head and saw her eyes glisten with tears.

“Everyone I’ve ever cared about, even you guys,“ she continued. "Everyone leaves me.”

I reached my hand up and rubbed at her arm. “Hey, we’re still here. We might have left, but we came back, just like we promised.”

“You’re going to leave again,” she sniffed out.

“Hey, what did I just tell you the other day? No matter how long or far apart that we’re separated, we’ll always find each other. And hasn’t that been true so far?” I told her, bumping her head with mine.

She let out a giggle that was mixed with tears. “Yeah.”

As she settled her chin more comfortably on my shoulder, I thought about how Mikey said that if he guessed she would have feelings for anyone, it would be me. But if that were true, wouldn’t she have tried to kiss me now? Wouldn’t she have already had plenty of chances to make a move on me?

And it’s the first time I’ve really looked at it. We _are_ close. And it is a bit unusual to be this physically affectionate with someone I’m not romantically interested in. The only way I can explain it is that she really is like a little sister to me. People are close like this with their little sisters, right?

I held her close to me and sat back against her pillows. We laid there in silence. Only hearing our breathing. She laid her head on my arm and I didn’t mind the weight. Looking down at her now, she really could be my sister. We have the same hair color, the same skin tone, the same height-deficiency. Not to mention she kicks ass and she laughs at all my stupid jokes. Ha, she would be the best little sister in the world.

No. She _is_ the best little sister in the world.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Leya POV

When I woke up, Frank was still asleep, his left hand cradled on his stomach, while I was still resting my head on his other arm. I made sure to get up and get out of my bed without waking him up, then I stood up and walked out of my room into the hallway.

I was feeling thirsty. Not only had I not been eating much, but I also haven’t been drinking much of anything, either. Not that I had been feeling hungry much the past few days, not with all the shit that happened.

Yeah. It all really happened.

And every time I wake up and remind myself, it hits me all over again. I felt a heaviness come over me as I walked down the hallway. But as I looked up, I was startled to see Mikey right there, sitting at the dining table. He was still fully dressed, jeans, jacket, and boots on still, and it looked like he was fiddling with a ballpoint pen between his hand on the table.

I averted my eyes to the floor and froze in my tracks.

I still hadn’t spoken to him since what happened in the bathroom. I hadn’t wanted to even look at him. And now my throat feels like it’s closing up again and I’m sweating and I just want to turn around and never come back out again.

“Leya,” Mikey started out as he turned his head to look at me.

Shit.

I started debating on flight or fight, but the choice was taken away from me when Mikey popped up right in front of me, looking down at me with the same pulled eyebrows of concern that he had looked at me with a few days ago.

“We need to talk,” he told me in a solid, strong voice.

Those four words seemed to make the vocal chords in my throat completely disappear. No. I don’t want to talk. But I have to eventually, don’t I?

Mikey swallowed and looked to the left. I just noticed that Ray had been sitting in the kitchen at the counter.

“Should I leave?” Ray asked, awkwardly pursing his lips to the side.

God, now Ray was in on this, too…

“No, we’ll go outside,” Mikey said as he walked toward the back porch. I swallowed and stood there for a couple seconds until Ray cleared his throat and smiled at me.

I had been around Ray long enough to know what that smile really meant. It was sympathetic. Which leaves me to believe that he knows. And if he knows, who else knows? And if he knows, does that mean that Mikey was talking about it with the other guys?

I decided to let go of all my questions and willed my feet to move, until I walked out onto the back porch. It was still dark out, the sky a deep purple, no stars out because of all the smog. I’m not even sure how late it is.

Mikey had his palms on the railing of the black iron gate that separated the small porch from our little garden. He barely inclined his head to the right when he heard me step outside.

I still couldn’t speak. But I made a point of standing next to him, of course, not getting too close this time.

“How are you feeling?” Mikey tentatively asked me after half a minute’s silence.

I swallowed and tried to speak this time.

“Fine,” I lied.

Mikey breathed in sharply. “Umm…”

I looked over at his face, tensed and looking down at his own hands, which were clenched on the railing. His lips were pressed together as he shifted his eyes toward me. I couldn’t handle this.

“I’m sorry!” I finally blurted out, feeling my cheeks burn.

Mikey’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I’m sorry–for… for kissing you!” I exclaimed as I looked down. Still can’t bear to look at his face.

“You don’t have to be sorry…” Mikey replied with a shake of his head.

“No, I do… I… I don’t know where it came from and–I’m–I’m embarrassed and–”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Mikey cut in again, sounding just as warm as he did in that bathroom.

I frowned and looked up at him. “I didn’t even ask if it was okay.”

His eyes were soft. “It was okay, Leya.”

I sighed as I put a hand up to my hair. “I don’t know… I don’t know why I did it.”

Right… let’s go back to the moment–he was just there, looking beautiful, being wonderful, holding me, looking at me with those eyes…

“You were upset…” Mikey awkwardly qualified.

I scrunched my eyebrows at this. I don’t like that he’s making excuses for me.

“Since when do upset people kiss their friends minutes after finding out someone close to them died?” I felt my tears come up again.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he told me in a tender voice.

“But you don’t even like me like that,” I continued as I took a knuckle to my right eye to brush away the forming tears.

Mikey turned his head back out toward the small backyard garden. “What if I did?”

Fuck no. Don’t do that.

“No,” I blurted out as I looked over at him–as if I could find the joke in that statement just by looking at his face. “You don’t. And we can’t–no.”

Mikey released a deep exhale. “When I had amnesia, I definitely felt something for you that… wasn’t exactly friendship. You slowly broke down my walls with your kindness, with the way you cared so much about me, the way you challenged me, the way you fought so much to help me, and I found myself smiling because of you–after I hadn’t smiled for a really long time–and you were always just… this light. When I was lost in the dark, you were the light. Because of you, I got better. It’s hard not to fall in love with someone who makes that much of an impact.”

Everything in my body feels numb. The edges of my face are tingling. What the hell did he just say? Did I just imagine that he said all these things? But even if what I really heard was true, something about this feels all wrong.

I’m not an expert on romance, but I’m pretty sure this is not the way it’s supposed to go. For starters, I’m not supposed to want to kill myself after I kiss him. And I’m not supposed to feel guilty when he tells me he ‘feels’ something for me. Why does this feel so wrong?

I cleared my throat and looked down. “Mikey, you’re one of my best friends and I love you. And it’s cool, you know, I don’t need more from you than friendship. And I don’t need you to tell me those things to make me feel better.”

“I didn’t say those things just to make you feel better. It was the truth,” Mikey replied, looking down at me with an intense stare.

“But you’re not in love with me. You can’t be,” I said with a shake of my head.

Mikey creased his brow. “What makes you so sure?”

I’m not even sure I know the answer myself. We get along well together, and he’s a wonderful person, and he’s beautiful, but there’s something in the way. And it’s not just about being good friends and not wanting to fuck that up. It’s not just the fact that he’s ten years older than me–that part I actually wouldn’t care about. But there’s always been something “off-limits” about Mikey, and there’s still something I feel with him that’s sort of… restrictive, the reason that it felt so wrong to kiss him in the first place.

It just hit me. How could I forget?

“Because you still have someone else you’re in love with,” I said as I looked up at him.

His eyes widened.

I cleared my throat and continued, “When we were at Lucky Carlo’s and you had that nightmare and I woke you up… She’s the one you called out for in your sleep. Alicia.”

Mikey looked down and swallowed, putting his hands into his jacket pockets. “How do you know about her?” His voice was cold and dark.

I felt a chill go through my heart. I know this was something that was touchy, but I had to bring it up. “I don’t know anything about her. But she’s the one that your tattoo is for, isn’t she?”

Mikey touched at his wrist through his jacket sleeve. His eyes darkened. “Yeah.”

“What happened to her?” I tentatively asked.

Mikey looked over at me sharply. “It’s a long story.”

“Sorry, that’s probably not–It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me…” I said as I looked down.

I heard Mikey release a deep sigh and looked up to see him leaning back against the wooden post of the porch. “We were married. Well, I guess we still are, though I haven’t seen her in years.”

I widened my eyes at this. I had no idea he was married. Which made what I did even more wrong.

“We lived in District 7, here in Battery City,” Mikey continued. “When Gerard and the others introduced us to their rebel group, she was hesitant to join. She wasn’t sure we should be going out to the Zones. Things weren’t half as bad then as they are now in Battery City. So we really didn’t know if it was safer to head out to the Zones. But our group had all these plans and you know how Gerard is when he gets a serious idea in his mind…” Mikey turned to me and swallowed before he spoke again. “The night before our rebel group was supposed to move out, Alicia and I got into an argument. She was worried that if it didn’t work out, if people found out we were associated with a rebel group, we’d get arrested or worse. She didn’t want to go through with the move. She wanted to stay in Battery City, just try to live a normal life. I didn’t.” He breathed out sharply as he shook his head.

“Well… going to the Zones was a good move, wasn’t it?” I feebly asked, attempting to break the tense silence.

He scoffed as he curled his lip to the side. “It didn’t really matter if it was a good move or not. Alicia was trying to look for a way for us to be together and stay safe. At that point, she was just _suggesting_ we stay in Battery City. We’d had our bags packed and everything to move and she was prepared to go to the Zones. She was just suggesting another option, a last minute opt-out. But I didn’t want to listen to her. And I attacked her for doubting my decision–and that’s not what you’re supposed to do in a marriage. That’s not what you’re supposed to do with your best friend.”

Mikey looked down, his brow creased and dark now. Half his face was covered in the shadow made by the porch light, but I could still see how angry he was at himself. And I could see how much he loved her. How much she meant to him. How much longing, pain, and anger he had reserved for only her. The way he inflected her name with a different kind of breath from every other word he spoke.

“She was fighting with me to stay together. I was fighting with her to prove I was right. You see the big problem with that?” Mikey asked me with a despondent stare.

I breathed in before answering. “It was for the both of you, though, wasn’t it? To move to the Zones… to make better lives for the both of you?”

Mikey choked out a laugh as he turned back toward the railing. “That does sound like decent justification for my actions, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t know how to answer this, so I remained silent. Mikey sighed again. “I cut off the argument by heading off to the last rebel group meeting before the move. Alicia refused to go with me and stayed home. So I just told her to be ready when I came back. I never used to tell her to do anything. And I didn’t even say goodbye before I slammed that door shut. I didn’t even tell her I loved her. That was the last time I saw her. When I came back, she was gone.”

“Gone?” I questioned with a raise of my eyebrows.

Mikey nodded. “Yeah. At first, I thought maybe she went out while I was at the meeting. I tried calling her, but she didn’t pick up. And then I waited up all night, expecting to see her walk through the front door any minute. But she never came home. I wanted to go looking for her, but Gerard and the others… they were leaving that night. And at that point, we really only had one shot at getting out of Battery City free. After the argument, I just assumed that things were done between me and Alicia. That she was probably pissed off at me, and I thought she would probably be better off if I left and she stayed.

"Then a few weeks later, I met some of our friends from Battery City out in the Zones, and they were surprised to see me out there without Alicia. Apparently she had gone missing. Our friends just assumed she had gone with me to the Zones. I had no idea how to find her while I was in the Zones, especially since we already had our fair share of danger fighting with the Dracs out there. I wondered if she did it on purpose, but she never would have left Bunny alone–Bunny was our cat. All of this made me feel that something bad had happened. So I tried to find out if there was any word on her. Everywhere we went, I asked about her. But no one had seen her. After two years, I gave up all hope of ever finding her.”

“Even in Battery City?” I asked.

Mikey looked at me with a narrowed eye, then blinked.

I blinked at this. “You _did_ look for her in Battery City, right?”

Mikey made an awkward choking sound in his throat. “The first time we came back to Battery City since we left was to rescue Grace. So… no.”

I could feel my own eyes light up–it was strange, because I hadn’t felt this kind of excitement in a long time. “So… she could still be here–right here in Battery City!”

Mikey looked down, his hair covering his eyes now. “Yeah, or she could be dead. I mean, you thought that your sister was here in Battery City, too, and now look–fuck. I’m sorry.”

I had looked down as he mentioned my sister. And he did have a point. I had been thinking Krys was alive for months while she was actually dead.

“Leya, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking–I shouldn’t have said that,” Mikey quickly blurted out as he reached out his arms for my shoulders.

I quickly shook my head and backed up before he could get a firm hold on me again. I breathed in and put a smile on my face. “It’s alright. And we can find out if Alicia’s alive. If she’s on the database of Battery City’s police records, something official like that. I mean, we’d probably have to do it illegally, but we can do that.”

“You would go through all that trouble?” Mikey asked as he brought his arms back to his sides.

“She’s important to you, right?” I told him with a small smile.

He looked down.

“If I had known about you two being married, I probably wouldn’t have kissed you,” I added as I crossed my arms. “Of course, I wasn’t really thinking at all when I did it. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Mikey replied.

I looked up at him with an arched eyebrow. “I crossed a line that I shouldn’t have.”

“And I let you,” Mikey argued as he took another step forward.

I looked to the side, feeling a headache coming on. “Can you just let me feel bad about this?”

He creased his eyebrows into an indignant expression. “No.”

“Well, I feel bad anyway,” I said as I looked down at my crossed arms. “The last thing I want to do is complicate things between us.”

“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” Mikey answered with a serious, but soft look. “You and I… there’s something between us that’s more than friendship. Like I said, it’d be really hard not to fall in love with someone like you. And, well, you kissed me, so I’m guessing you don’t exactly hate me. Well, except you did run away right after and completely stopped having all contact with me… So maybe I’m wrong.” He looked at me with an anxious bend of his eyebrows.

I choked out a laugh. I think it must have been the first time I laughed in days.

I cleared my throat. “No, I don’t hate you. In fact, I like you. A lot.” I looked down. “But… I’m just not sure to what extent.”

Mikey nodded and his smile dropped. Of course I love him, but I’m not sure if I’m _in_ love with him. There’s no question he’s beautiful and I’m physically attracted to him, but is this more than friendship?

“I’ve never been in love before,” I said while I looked him in the eye. “But I feel like I’d know it if I was. And this just doesn’t feel like it.”

Mikey softly gazed at me for a few seconds, not speaking. Then, “So nothing changes between us.”

I smiled at this and stayed quiet. Then I looked up toward the sky again, wondering if I could see at least one star through this cloudy atmosphere.

“You know, this would be a lot easier if you were ugly,” I muttered to Mikey as I kept staring at the sky.

He laughed, then breathed out a sigh. “How do you do it with Frank?”

“Do what?” I asked, puzzled.

Mikey leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms. “You know, when I was an amnesiac, I didn’t know any better because I couldn’t remember everything… but I was almost _positive_ you were in love with him. I mean, yeah, I was kind of fucked up in the head, but what I knew of you two, what I saw… it wasn’t far of a stretch.”

“Me and Frank?” I blurted out. “But Frank’s like a big brother to me!”

I felt my cheeks flush. I had thought about Frank like that even less than I’d thought about Mikey like that. Although, I do remember that one time Caelan asked if me and Frank were “together.” Did we really act like that much of a couple?!

Mikey was laughing, his eyes scrunched until they were almost closed.

“What’s so funny?” I snapped.

“That’s exactly what he said,” Mikey replied with a smirk.

“What he said? Wait–you two were talking about me?”

“Well, I had to make sure… I mean you two _have_ been sleeping together.” He raised his eyebrows at me.

“Yeah, sleeping! As in lying in bed unconscious next to each other! Not… the other stuff…” I said, feeling awkward.

Mikey laughed at this. Then we were both quiet for a few seconds. I looked over at him, noticing the way his eyes still looked a bit sad.

“Thank you,” I said. “For being there for me in that bathroom. You were the only thing keeping me from completely freaking out about Krys.”

“Of course,” Mikey told me with a nod.

I looked down. “I think that’s why I kissed you. To let you know… it meant a lot to me to have you there.”

Mikey nodded again.

“Next time I’ll just… fist bump you or something,” I said with a chuckle.

He chuckled back. “That’ll work.”

I smiled up at him. “We’ll find Alicia. Someone here needs to have a happy ending.”

He looked down at me with a bent eyebrow. “Why shouldn’t that someone be you?”

I scoffed. “I’d rather focus on the things I can actually help right now.”

He nodded, then turned to fully face me. “She was a lot like you, you know.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“She had the biggest heart, she was incredibly selfless and sensitive, but she was also tough as nails and didn’t like to let herself be taken care of like a princess, either. And she didn’t look like it, but she was a huge dork, someone who didn’t think I was too much of a loser for her–and she knew a few things about cars, too. More than me,” Mikey laughed. He kept a fond gaze on me. “In a lot of ways you remind me of her. It’s no wonder why I like you so much.”

I felt both happy and sad at the same time to hear this. The things he likes about me are things he likes about his wife. His missing wife. And suddenly that memory of him grabbing my hand when he woke up from his nightmare and called me Alicia–it’s all too vivid now.

“You’d probably get along with her real well,” he concluded with a gentle smile.

“Then let’s find her and find out,” I replied with a wistful smile of my own.

  
  


The next morning, we all sat together for breakfast. Everyone looked at me in astonishment as I poured myself a bowl of cereal and then said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Mom blurted out. “You look well rested.”

I smiled. “I feel well rested.”

Dad smiled over at me warmly, his brown eyes shining at me, seeming to smile themselves. He had finally got back to his old self, dressing down in a t-shirt and jeans before getting ready for work, his hair not so meticulously styled, a bit of flyaway hairs poking out. He looked like my dad again. Something I hadn’t really seen since I was 16.

Then I met eyes with Frank. He was smiling at me. But I looked over at Ray and Mikey, who were looking at me carefully. It was still kind of weird to see the guys sitting around the table with my parents. Especially after their initial meeting–which involved a lot of staring down.

I cleared my throat. “Mom, Dad,” I started as I looked down. “I want to go… I want to go say goodbye to Krys.”

My mom’s blue eyes softened and went dark. “Leya…”

“Is she–did you bury her, or is she–cre–cremated?” I could barely manage to get the beginning of the word 'cremated’ out of my mouth. To think about her body like that…

Dad’s eyes widened. “We buried her. At the cemetery on the top of the hill.”

I nodded, although I felt Frank’s eyes on me, watchful and almost overbearing.

“Oh. Good. I think I’m going to go visit her.”

“Do you want us to go with you?” Mom asked. Dad looked over at me with earnest eyes as well.

I hesitated, but then shook my head. “No… this is something I want to do on my own.”

My parents nodded, and I glanced around to see the guys either looking down sadly or looking at me sadly, in Frank’s case.

“Don’t let me forget to write down the… details of where Krys’s… grave is,” Dad said as he looked down at his cup of coffee.

This was the first time I had seen him in pain over Krys. Mom reached a hand over to his shoulder and started to rub at it. My eyes started to itch in the heat of tears forming. I swallowed.

“Yeah, that would be good,” was all I managed to hoarsely whisper out. Through my peripheral vision, I saw the guys looking at me or my parents in concern. This must be awkward for them, but they’ve been handling it gracefully.

As soon as breakfast was over, Frank, Ray, and Mikey helped clean up and my parents finished getting ready to go to work. Meanwhile, my dad went looking through his wallet and gave me a slip of paper that had “87, D” written on it. On the other side of the paper was a tiny map of the White Rose Hill cemetery, a bunch of numbers dotted along the pathways.

“You should be able to find it if you look for it on the map,” Dad said as he tucked his wallet back into his pants.

I nodded as I closed my hand over the slip of paper. “Thanks, Dad.” I looked back up at him and he gave me a smile, although his eyes were still sad.

I reached forward and wrapped my arms around his back. He bent over me and grabbed my shoulders.

“I missed you,” I whispered to him.

“Missed you, too, Princess Leya,” Dad replied as he gave me another squeeze.

I smirked at this and breathed out a laugh.

“Still hate when I call you that?” he asked with a laugh.

I smiled. “No. Not anymore. And she was a tough princess, wasn’t she?”

“The toughest and the smartest,” Dad replied with a beaming grin. “Just like you.”

I laughed to myself. I’m sure my dad knew nothing of how tough I’ve had to make myself over the past year. But I appreciated the compliments.

Mom came back downstairs just at that moment, dressed in her gray business suit, but her hair let down in relaxed, light brown waves.

“Tony, we’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon,” she told my dad. She worked at a bank in the Central District, while my dad worked not too far from there as a car design engineer.

Mom turned to me and pulled me into a gentle embrace. “Tell Krys we said hi.”

This kind of unnerved me, but my mom had always been a bit strange like that. Looking at the positive side of things, that is… not letting sadness get to her too much. And her request didn’t really sound strange, considering I’ve been frequently talking to Krys in my head over the past year.

“I will,” I said as I pulled away from her.

Mom and Dad immediately left for work, and then I took a shower and got dressed. I hadn’t been keeping up that much with my body’s maintenance over the past few days, so this was refreshing. I also decided to take the bandage off my back. It had fully scarred over, even though it was still pink and soft. But I didn’t need the bandage there anymore.

It was nice to feel clean again, and it was a bit weird to wear some of my old clothes. They still fit, even nearly two years since I had last worn them. I had to kind of marvel at the fact that my parents kept my room intact, even after they disowned me and Krys. Were they always expecting us to come back or did they just not care? Speaking of which, I haven’t even seen Krys’s old room. I’m not sure if I’m ready for that yet, though.

After I got dressed–black skirt, tights, boots, and long sleeve blue sweater–I went out to the living room, where the guys were talking among each other, looking very serious.

Frank was the first one to notice I stepped in the room, and quickly rose his head up to look at me.

“Whoa…” he breathed out.

“You look nice!” Ray cheerily told me.

Mikey turned and raised an eyebrow.

I smiled. “Yeah, I finally showered,” I replied with a chuckle. I walked to meet them in the middle of the gray couches.

“You’re wearing a skirt,” Frank dryly pointed out. “And tights.”

“Well, don’t look surprised. I am a girl, and I only started wearing jeans regularly when I became a rebel,” I answered with a small laugh.

All the guys smiled at me, and then it was silent.

“So… where are the keys to the car?” I asked after I cleared my throat.

“You’re going out by yourself?” Frank questioned as he turned to me.

“Well, yeah…” I replied as I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt.

“To the cemetery, right?” Ray asked. I nodded in return.

“Do you even have your license?” Frank asked me with a pointed eyebrow.

I tilted my head and frowned. “Really?”

Mikey looked over at me and said, “Keys are up next to the door.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“Oh, so you two are talking again?” Frank asked as I walked over to the door, noting the different sets of keys hanging off of the brass rungs of the key-holder.

Mikey and I looked awkwardly between each other. I wasn’t aware that everyone else noticed we weren’t talking.

Frank’s mouth awkwardly opened, “I mean…”

“Yeah, Frank. We’re talking again,” Mikey told him with a huffy sigh.

Frank smiled at him. “Good. So… umm… anything else happen while I was asleep?”

I felt myself start to sweat with anxiety. “I’m gonna head out now.”

“Do you want us to go with you?” Ray asked as he stood up.

I thought about this. “…No.”

“Well, what if something happens?” Frank quickly replied as he stood up, too.

“I don’t think anything’s going to happen to me at a cemetery,” I answered as I put a hand on my hip.

“You never know!” Frank argued as he raised his tattooed hands in the air.

Ray turned to him. “Frank. Relax…”

Frank turned to him with a creased brow and then tensed his shoulders. “I don’t want her to be alone. Especially now at a time like this–when Gerard’s out there!”

“Fine!” I exclaimed. They all looked over at me. “Frank, come with me. But you two are staying. I don’t need a full escort.”

Mikey and Ray nodded.

“See you in a little while then,” Mikey said.

Ray also added an “mmhmm.”

Frank followed me over to the door, after I had just picked up the key to the stolen gray car.

“You sure you wouldn’t want any of the other guys to go instead of me?” Frank questioned, looking a bit sheepish now.

I sighed. “Then you would just be here grumbling over how you would think that one escort wasn’t enough. Let’s go.”

Frank followed after me. He insisted on driving.

We were quiet most of the way to the cemetery. I think I had been grouchy enough that Frank didn’t want to take his chances speaking to me so soon. But I suppose it was better, to have that quiet time to mentally prepare myself for coming to the cemetery. To say goodbye to Krys.

After ten minutes of driving through winding uphill roads under an overcast sky, Frank parked the car in the parking lot of the White Rose Hill Cemetery. The lot was completely barren and white brick walls separated us from the graveyard. I’ve never been here before. I never thought I’d have to be here. Not anytime soon, anyway.

“You gonna be okay in there? You sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Frank asked as he turned to me, his neat, dark eyebrows raised up in sympathy.

I swallowed. “This is something I have to do alone. But I appreciate you wanting to go with me.” I smiled over at him before I opened the door.

“I’ll be here when you’re done. Take as much time as you need,” he told me with a gentle gaze.

I nodded and then stepped outside. I straightened my skirt and walked on through the entrance of the cemetery.

No one else was here inside the graveyard, either. I took the slip of paper from my skirt pocket and tried to figure out where I was, relative to the map.

My boots clacked on the cement of the path as I looked for the row that I was supposed to find. I passed through the cement paths, seeing plaques upon plaques on the ground while I looked for my sister’s name. The grass around each of these plaques was strangely vibrant, but it smelled like nothing up here. There were also trees encased in glass borders, barely any leaves on them, even in April. I wondered if any of these plants were real.

I walked along for another minute and then there she finally was.

> _Krysten Novena_
> 
> _Loving daughter and sister_
> 
> _August 14, 1998–September 9, 2019_

The crying was immediate. I had been crying so much all week it didn’t even feel forced. It felt as natural as blinking.

This was all I had to say goodbye to. A plaque in the ground.

And for some reason, what hurts to see the most here isn’t her name. It’s not the 'loving daughter and sister,’ either. It’s the dates. 1998-2019. 21 years old. She was only 21 years old. And she’ll never be older than that. And some day, if I manage to stay alive that long, I’m going to be over 21 years old. I’m going to be older than she ever was. And that’s weird. Because she’s my older sister. And the thought of being older than her…

Tears were coming down violently now that I was shaking.

It’s weird to think that she’s not here anymore. Nowhere on this earth. Except here in the ground. But even that’s not her, it’s just her body, which has already decomposed.

For the thousandth time, I thought to myself… if I hadn’t run away to the Zones, if I had stayed with Krys during the Cleanout, would she be alive now? Could I have saved her? And why _her_? Why not me? And did she die thinking I was dead? Did she die believing I was alive? These and so many more questions ran through my mind once more. Questions that I’ll never get the answers to.

I sat down on the cement floor and rested on my knees, legs to the side. I sat and cried for what must have only been a few minutes, but felt like hours. After I wiped my eyes and nose on my sleeves, I reached to the bracelet on my wrist and took it off. I placed it onto Krys’s plaque.

“Thanks for giving me hope, Krys,” I sniffed out.

I don’t know why I’m leaving that bracelet. She gave it to me to keep. But I feel like… I have to let her go. And if anything has been a tangible symbol of my sister, it was that bracelet.

I wonder if some person’s going to take it and throw it in the trash, like they do with all the other flowers that are left here. Speaking of which, I’ve only seen white flowers in this cemetery. My orange beaded bracelet is the only colorful thing here. Maybe that’s reason enough to leave it.

I placed my hands for support on the cement and then stood up. After giving one last look to the plaque, I sat on a nearby bench and just looked around me. The sky up here was cloudy, but still kind of bright underneath the sun. From here, the top of the hill of District 4, you could see the city, all those gray buildings under a darker sky.

Suddenly, the world felt very small.

Was it all just Battery City and the Zones? Was there absolutely nothing else? And was this how life was supposed to be–no peace, no love, just kill or be killed? Die in the Zones, or die on the inside in Battery City. I had been dealing with so much death over the past year…even my own… probably more than anyone my age should. I’m not even twenty years old yet, and I’ve had to deal with my sister and some of my best friends being gone forever. All of this… it just makes me want to fight harder so that doesn’t happen to anyone else. At least… not until we’re all old and gray.

I started the walk back down the hill. After the pain wore off of my heart a little, there was something else I felt that I wasn’t entirely sure I should be feeling. It was like a weight got lifted off my shoulders.

The whole time I’d been out in the Zones, I always had Krys at the back of my mind. Sure, she wasn’t always there consciously, but I always kept her bracelet on, I always wondered if I was going to find her whenever I crossed borders, and I always worried about where she was.

Now that she’s dead, at least I don’t have those same worries anymore. I don’t have to wonder. And yes, I’m devastated. Beyond devastated, but I know that she would want me to keep going on. She wouldn’t want me to just sit, cry, and lie in bed for the rest of my life. Krys, out of anybody, wouldn’t want me to mourn her. And I feel terrible about it. I feel like I should be mourning her. I feel like I shouldn’t even be able to go on living in a world without her. But she wouldn’t want that. And at least now, she’s not suffering anymore. She’s free. Free of this life.

In a sense, she freed me, too. Nothing is holding me back from jumping into the fray again. I don’t have to worry about her. Now I can direct my entire focus on helping Frank, Mikey and Ray get Gerard back.

I had been feeling so angry at him, for shooting me, for almost killing Mikey, for hurting Frank, for his creepy stalker behavior, for all the bullshit he spewed in that press conference I watched–and I know none of it is really his fault. But I’m so angry at this psychopathic monster he’s become. I want it to die, so that my friend can come back to me.

I remember the first time I met him, the way he was smiling against the sun, the red of his hair and the green of his eyes looking so surreal, the way he smiled at me, happy to know I was alive, even though he was a stranger. That’s the Gerard I need to save. The one who told me to love myself, the one who first called me “family” at a time when I felt like I had nobody, and the one who let me know that he and the other Fabulous Killjoys all loved me, because we were all a family now, and a family loves each other–

“'Til the end of everything,” I whispered out loud.

Gerard is my family. Just like Frank, Mikey and Ray. Just like Diamond, Sniper, and Jax. Just like Krys. Just like my parents.

And that’s reason enough to do everything in my power to save him and bring him back home.


	5. Chapter 5

When I got back to the parking lot, Frank was waiting, leaned against the hood of the car while smoking a cigarette. He was looking down as he tapped the cigarette to let the ashes of it fall while he blew smoke out of the side of his mouth. He was rubbing the back of his short, unkempt hair at the same time with his other hand.

“Did I take long?” I asked as I approached him, my boots clacking along the asphalt.

He glanced up and dropped his right hand to let his cigarette rest at his side. “No, not really,” he answered.

I nodded my head as I pursed my lips. “Good. Let’s go home.”

Frank nodded, and walked around to go back to the driver’s seat.

Before he opened the door, I leaned a hand on the roof of the car and called out to him. “Hey, Frank, I just want to say thank you. You and the guys, you’ve all been really good with my parents and me… being out of it. So thanks.”

Frank blinked his hazel eyes and then gave me a dimple-forming smile. “No need to thank me. Besides, your dad seems cool with me now that he’s off his pills. And after we had a pretty geeky conversation about The Empire Strikes Back. You know, Star Wars.”

I chuckled at this and smiled back before I opened the car door on my side and got in. Frank had tucked his cigarette just above his right ear. Which didn’t seem that safe to me, but he did it so casually.

“So did my dad also show you his figurine collection?” I asked with a raise of my eyebrow.

Frank’s eyes widened. “He has a figurine collection?”

I laughed while Frank started the car. It took us only about fifteen minutes to get back to my house, where Ray and Mikey were watching TV in the living room.

They turned it off as soon as Frank and I walked in, shutting the door behind us.

“Hey!” Ray cheered as he sat up. Mikey followed his suit and also sat up straighter as he smiled at us.

“Hey guys,” I replied.

Frank hung the keys up on the rack next to the door again.

“Have you guys just been staying in most of the time?” I addressed to all of them. “I mean, all week?”

“Well, we don’t really have anywhere else to go,” Ray said with a shrug.

I nodded. "Well, how about we go somewhere today?”

“You sure about that?” Mikey asked me with a careful look.

“I’m definitely sure,” I replied with a steady look. “I’ve been inside for too long. Even for living in Battery City.”

“Where do you want to go in this fun, fun town?” Frank sarcastically asked as he crossed his arms.

I smirked. “You guys want to go to a place I used to go to when I played hooky in high school?”

“You played hooky in high school?” Ray asked with a bemused raise of his eyebrows. “They didn’t, like, arrest you for that?”

I giggled. “Well, the trick is to not get caught, which I never did. It also helps being a top student and having a clean track record to make people not suspect a thing.”

“You’re a deceptive little shark. We already know that,” Frank said as he stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck my tongue back out at him.

Ray chuckled, crinkles forming by his light brown eyes. “Well, alright! Let’s get going!”

We drove for half an hour until we got to this winding hill that was now full of dead trees, blackened from their exposure to acid rains, pollution, etc. Before, this place used to be really green. At the top of the hill were the ruins of what was once part of an observatory. Fires and a landslide had destroyed half of it and it was gated off with electric wiring. But even though you couldn’t go into the observatory anymore, you could still see a great view of the city and the surrounding land.

“So you used to go here when you ditched school?” Frank asked with a laugh after we all stepped out of the car. “What did you do?”

“Just hang out. Look at the view. It’s nice, isn’t it?” I asked as I looked out.

The guys all looked out at the view. Maybe nice wasn’t the right word, since they all looked sad.

“This placed used to be beautiful,” Ray remarked. “Look at all that gray now.”

"Look, I think you can see the ocean from here,” Mikey said as he pointed with his full arm extended.

I looked hard, and I could faintly see something bluish-gray in the distance.

“And right next to it, those are the borderlands… I knew I heard the ocean! I hadn’t gone completely crazy yet!” Frank exclaimed.

We sat on the top of that hill for a few hours, switching between pleasant conversations and comfortable silences as we overlooked the view. It made me feel relaxed and happy to be here with them, like we had our own little club. It had felt like a long time since we all just sat around and happily did nothing.

  
  


We came home just before the sun set, and just before my parents came home from work. As they walked into the house, Mom had a tightened expression on her face, and Dad was leading her by the shoulders. She exhaled a big sigh as she walked into the kitchen and moved away from him.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

Mom took a large drink of water before she answered me. “No.”

“What happened?” Ray asked. He was sitting next to me at the dining table.

“Today, someone followed me home from work,” Mom solemnly said.

“Who?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Someone in a suit. Followed me all the way from the office to this street.”

“Someone’s on to us,” Frank muttered.

“But how?” I asked as I whipped my head around to him.

“Could they have guessed we were off the pills?” Dad asked the guys.

“Or did they see us?” Mikey questioned.

Everyone looked tense. I felt my throat dry up. What does this all mean? Are we being watched?

“It might have been from when we looked up Rina,” Ray quietly broke the silence as he turned to Frank. “Maybe we should check in with her.”

I creased my brow. “Rina? The secretary from BLI?”

Frank rolled his eyes. “What other Rina?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Wait a minute–you never mentioned Rina–are you planning something?”

Frank sighed. “Don’t worry about it.”

That made me feel even more angry.

Mikey quickly turned to me. “The other day when we said we were out getting Frank cigarettes, we were really out meeting Rina.”

“You’ve been meeting with someone who works for BLI?” Dad questioned, his face wrinkled in annoyance.

“She’s a friend!” Frank exclaimed. he turned to me. “Rina’s going to help us. I needed to look her up to find out where she lived.”

“And now that’s probably put this house under suspicion,” Ray muttered.

“What? Why?” Mom asked.

“Because Rina knows too much about BL/ind’s true nature. And the fact that you two are Leya’s parents, and Leya is connected to us–to me—and I worked with Rina in the past–it’s probably led them to become suspicious.” Frank answered.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were meeting with Rina? Is that what you guys were all talking about this morning?” I asked, feeling my mouth dry.

“You had more important things to worry about,” Ray told me with a comforting smile.

“Still! Why would you keep that from me?” I asked. “That’s kind of important, too!”

“Leya’s right,” Dad cut in. “We’ve been kind enough to shelter you here. The least you can do is tell us when you do something risky like that! Making Barbara all nervous–”

“I’m fine, Tony,” Mom chided with a careful stare. “Just a little shaken from being followed home. You think that they can… hear what we’re saying? That we’re still being watched?”

We all fell silent and started to look around.

“I think if they could hear us, they would have already barged in,” Mikey suggested.

Everyone relaxed a bit in their shoulders.

Dad sighed. “It’s not safe here anymore. I’m sorry, but I think you guys have to leave.”

“Dad!” I protested.

“No, he’s right,” Frank said as he looked down. “Your parents are being watched because of us. We need to move out.”

“You don’t know that!” I protested, although all signs pointed to that being the case. “Until we have actual proof and an actual reason to leave, we should stay here.”

“What more prompting do you need than your mom being followed home from work?” Frank asked with a bitter stare. “If we stay here, we jeopardize them too.”

I blinked, “But where are we going to go?”

“You stay here,” Frank told me.

“I can’t stay here,” I answered with a narrow of my eyes.

“Yes, you can, and you will,” Frank argued.

“Frank, I’m dead to the government,” I answered. “If anyone finds out I’m alive…”

“Gerard _is_ the government! He already knows you’re alive!” he snapped.

“Which means I need to leave,” I solemnly replied. “He can’t know that I came back here. If they’ve got a tail on my parents, it’s only going to be a matter of time until they find out if anyone else is staying here, too.”

Frank gave me a defeated purse of his lips. “I still think you should stay here. It’s the safest place for you.”

I stared over at him. “Maybe so, but if it puts my parents in danger, I’m not risking that.”

“Leya…” Dad exhaled. “Don’t say that. It’s not your job to worry about us.”

“If anything, we should be the ones protecting you,” Mom added.

I shook my head. “No… the best thing I can do for all of us is leave. You two need to do your best to act like you’re still on your pills, and I can’t see you again until all of this is over.”

“But we just got you back,” Mom protested.

“Leya’s right,” Mikey cut in. “If she leaves, you two won’t have anything to hide. If she stays, she’ll be watched, too. Unless you keep her cooped up in this house for the rest of her life. Which I don’t think she’d like.” He gave me a warm look as he said this last bit.

I nodded my head. “Really, it’s for the best. And when this is all over, I’ll come back for you,” I told my parents with a grin.

Frank had his arms crossed, a bitter expression on his brow. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” I countered.

He sighed. “If it wasn’t for me looking up Rina, none of this would be happening.”

“Make sure your plan is damn worth it, then,” Dad told him with a tighten of his jaw.

“It will be,” Ray quickly came to Frank’s aid, while Frank stood speechless.

Mom sighed. “Well, now that that’s settled, let’s have dinner.”

  
  


Dinner was tense. Everyone was quiet. The conversation was stilted. Nothing could really remove that darkness from the earlier conversation. And then after, we started up discussion on what our options were.

“Well, we can’t go anywhere personally connected to us. That’ll make it too easy for Gerard to find us,” Ray explained as he tapped his fingers on the table.

Frank put his fist up to his mouth. “Where do we go then?”

“There’s a small apartment in District 7 that we can go to, if it’s not destroyed,” Mikey suggested.

Frank blinked at him. “You have an apartment in the city and you’re just telling us now?”

Mikey shook his head adamantly. “No! Well… there was a studio that I had bought, but never used.”

Ray and Frank turned to him with creased brows.

Mikey sighed and looked down toward his knees. “No one knew about it. Not even Gerard.”

“Why the hell did you buy a studio in District 7?” Frank asked.

Mikey scratched at his temple. “Because Alicia and I were having trouble, and I thought it would be good to have a place to go in case things between us got worse.”

Ray sympathetically placed a hand on Mikey’s knee.

“Anyway, I don’t know what could have happened to it in between the time that we left, but if it’s still there, and unoccupied, we can go there,” Mikey finished as he looked back at all of us.

“Okay, good,” I said to break the silence. “But then what? What are you all planning? You said you looked up Rina–how is she going to help?”

“She said she could get us into the research files in the lab,” Frank told me while he clasped his hands together. “We can probably try and reverse what they did to Gerard’s brain.”

I blinked at this. “You think she’ll really be able to find that information?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Frank said with a raise of his eyebrows.

I nodded. “I guess you’re right. I mean, what else are we going to do?”

“You’re not doing anything. We may not be able to keep you here, but you’re still not getting involved,” Frank grumbled.

I tensed my brow. “Frank… You can’t just tell me what to do. And I want to be involved. I want to help you guys. I want to help Gerard.”

“Yeah, come on, Frank,” Ray added with a tilt of his head. “Leya’s been with us on all these crazy rides.”

Frank huffed out, “Yeah, the first time she died for five minutes, and then the last time she almost died again!” Then he turned to me, his eyes looking weary. “Haven’t you had enough?”

I was surprised to see that look. It wasn’t angry so much as it was sympathetic.

“You’ve already had so much to deal with. Just leave this to us,” he softly told me.

“But don’t you get it?” I asked as I creased my eyebrows. “It’s because of everything that’s happened that I want to fight. I’m not losing anyone else. And I wasn’t asking for permission. I’m helping get Gerard back, whether you’re with me or against me.”

Frank arched an eyebrow at me. “Is that so?”

I adamantly nodded. “I owe him my life.”

“Something I bet he’d hold against you now,” Frank muttered.

I looked to the side. “That’s not Gerard. That’s this monster they turned him into.”

Frank exchanged looks between Mikey, who had been keeping silent during mine and Frank’s argument. He now looked a bit stressed, the way he had his lips pulled to the side.

Frank sighed, then turned to me. “Here’s the thing, Leya… You only knew Gerard for two weeks. I’ve known him half my life. There are sides to him… sides to him that can be very cruel. While he’s a pretty empathetic guy, that’s what also makes him really good at hurting people when he wants to.”

I creased my brow. “What do you mean?”

Frank looked down at the table, then back up at me. “This is still Gerard. The only difference is that he’s working for the other side. But it’s still him. He’s not, like, possessed or anything. This is just the side of him he reserves for his enemies. And he can be quite cruel. A little sadistic. Spiteful, even. And that’s why I’m worried about you getting mixed up.”

I blinked as I processed this. “You think he’s going to hurt me or something?”

“I know he would, if he got the chance. He’s already singled you out, with that creepy photo-stalking shit. And that’s why it’s best that you stay away from him. Stay away from the fight altogether.”

“He’s my friend and he saved my life,” I stressed again. “I owe it to him to save him. Even if that means—”

“Leya, I know how much you like him and how much he liked you. But you’ve never seen him at his worst. And it’s not something you should ever want to experience. Especially when you’re his enemy now. So for the last time: you’re not getting involved.”

Frank kept a solemn stare on me. I said no more and sat back in my seat. Not that that equated to me giving in, I just saw no point in trying to argue anymore, since he clearly was going to be stubborn about this.

I thought back to that week with Gerard. I’d seen how angry he could get. How mean, how biting, and how vicious he became. But all of that was out of a protective instinct. What happened when his hostility came from a vindictive motivation?

  
  


Later that night, I packed some of my things to take with me to wherever we were going to hide out next. Mostly clothes and essentials to make me feel human. My dad was kind enough to give the guys some of his clothes and Mom started packing food for us. It was really weird.

Then after all this, I decided to let Ray sleep in my room, since it was kind of cramped for all three guys to be in the living room and with Krys’s room empty, I could sleep there.

So I went up there, turned on the lights, and saw that it was exactly the same. Her pink and white color scheme that ranged from her bed sheets to the walls, and to most of the furniture in that room, and all her old clothes were still hung up in the closet. Even all her makeup and nail polish was still resting on her vanity desk.

  
  
_“Come here, let me teach you how to properly do your eyeliner,” Krys told me._

_“I know how to do it…” I protested as I sat down in front of her mirror._

_Krys beamed down at me. “Oh sweetie, you’ve still got a bit to learn.”_

_She made me turn around to face her and she took the eyeliner bottle away from me. She put foundation, and more eye shadow on me before she applied the eyeliner, making a skinny winged shape._

_“See, when you do your makeup like this, no one’s gonna wanna mess with you,” Krys said. “All you need is red lipstick–that should finish the look.”_

_“You know I can’t go to school looking like this, right?” I asked with a raised eyebrow._

_“Why not?” Krys asked with a laugh._

_“Dramatic eyeliner and red lipstick? Everyone would laugh at me or say I look weird. I also think that’s against the dress code!”_

_“Leya, Leya… It’s about time you stopped caring what other people think. And you’re already fifteen, so this kind of makeup won’t look weird on you. Do you like it?”_

_I shrugged. “…yeah.”_

_“Then that’s all that matters,” Krys replied as she started putting away the rest of her makeup._

_“You know I can’t really do this without your help, right?” I told Krys with a roll of my eyes._

_“Yes you can,” Krys told me with a smirk. “And one day you’re going to have to learn to do all these things without me.” She reached forward and started stroking my bangs. Then she looked down at my face and smiled. “But don’t worry, I’ll still be there to do your makeup at your wedding!”_

_I laughed. “You, do my wedding makeup?”_

_“What’s so funny about that?” she asked with a cross of her arms and a pout._

_“I’d rather hire a professional,” I answered._

_“You’re so mean!” Krys protested as she pushed the chair I was sitting in, making me almost topple over._

_I laughed. “I’m sorry! Fine. Let’s make a deal: you can do my makeup for my wedding if…. if I get to name your firstborn.”_

_Krys laughed as she held out a pinky. “Deal.”_

_I widely grinned at this and linked my pinky in hers._

  
  
She’ll never have a firstborn. And I’m not exactly holding my breath on getting married. How things change so much in just a few years.

I decided to borrow some of her clothes, seeing as I had outgrown most of my old clothes, and Krys was only slightly bigger than me, last time we checked. As I rifled through the hangers in her closet, I noticed that her clothes still smelled like her. She still existed here in this room.

After I got done picking and choosing a few clothing items, I tucked myself into Krys’s bed and turned the lamp off. I settled down into the sheets, smelling the familiar perfume in her pillows, the scent of her almost making it feel like she was here. I let gentle tears fall out of my eyes.

I don’t know if this will ever get easy. But in a sense, it feels like she’s here with me to make things better, like she always was. If I picture it hard enough, it’s almost like she’s lying next to me.

  
  


In the morning, I said goodbye to my parents. At least this time, we weren’t shouting at each other.

“You remember the house number right? If there’s any way for you to contact us–any safe way–you do that, you hear me?” Mom told me as she hugged me to her.

“I will,” I said against her shoulder.

“One more thing, Leya,” Dad said just before they moved to the door.

“What?” I asked as I blinked.

“What do you want for your birthday? It’s coming up real soon, isn’t it? The big 2-0!” Dad beamed at me.

I wanted to smile and cry at this. Both at how much of a dork he was being, how he still remembered, and he still acted like this was all going to be resolved within a few weeks.

I looked down. “Oh… I don’t know…”

Mom smiled at me. “You sure? We’ll get you anything you want.”

I smiled at this.

Dad came closer to me and hugged me. He whispered in my ear, “Call this an early birthday present, then.”

I felt him force something cold and hard into my hand. I looked down and saw car keys. I looked back up to him and creased my brow.

“Your car keys?” I asked.

He nodded his head. “Yep. Me and your mom don’t really use it, anyway. And we had always planned on giving it to you as a congratulatory present after you graduated SCARECROW Academy. That’s not going to happen, though, is it?”

“B-but-but this is for the Silvia!” I exclaimed as I felt myself start to sweat. My dad’s most prized possession, the beautiful black car he had drove maybe only ten times or less. He had spent five years restoring it, giving it a brand new hydrogen-powered engine and everything.

“You need it more than me,” Dad replied with a wink.

“I don’t know what to say…” I breathed out as I tightened my hands on the keys, the steel grinding into my skin.

“You can say thank you,” he told me with a grin.

“Thank you,” I blurted out as I looked up at him. Dad smiled and then reached down to hug me again.

“You make sure you take care of yourself, okay?” he told me with a careful eye.

“I will.”

“I want to see grandchildren someday, you know!” he joked.

I rolled my eyes, but then I thought of the seriousness of this remark. Considering I’m his only living daughter, I guess it wasn’t such a silly thing to say after all.

“Well, wait ten years at least,” I replied as I crossed my arms.

Dad nodded. “Okay.”

Mom came forward and hugged me to her again. “Be safe. Don’t be brave.”

“Mom…” I started to protest.

“You understand me? I know these men will do everything to protect you,” she looked up at Ray, Mikey, and Frank as she said this. “But in case something should happen to them, you save yourself, alright?”

“Mom!” I whined again. Why was she saying this?

She put a palm to my left temple and told me, “I love you. Be safe.”

“I love you, too, Mom,” I told her as I felt warm tears rush my eyes. She turned away with my dad, and they both left out the door.

After this, the guys and I all turned to each other.

“We should leave soon,” Mikey started with a serious look in his eyes. “In case anyone checks up on the house later.”

Ray nodded. “Yep, you’re right. Let’s start loading up.“

“My dad just gave me a car…” I announced as I still held the keys in my hand. The others looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“Oh, nice!” Ray cheered at me with a wide grin.

“Yeah… so now we have two cars,” I concluded. "So should I take it to the place where we’re going?”

“Well, having two cars wouldn’t hurt,” Frank told me with a bright look.

“This is my dad’s prized possession we’re talking about, though,” I protested. “I’m scared to mess it up or risk it getting stolen.”

“Well, it’s your car now, isn’t it?” Frank told me with a raise of his eyebrows. “You do what you want with it.”

While I was still debating on what exactly to do with my new inheritance, the guys and I started carrying things from the living room into the garage, which was connected to the house. It was during all this that I finally got the perfect idea into my head.

“You know what? I actually forgot to pack some things,” I blurted out just as the guys were starting to get into their stolen car.

Frank creased his brow. “Well, is it really anything you’ll need badly?”

I looked down. “Well… I mean… I kind of wanted to take some of my sister’s things…”

Frank’s eyes softened. “Oh.”

I shook my head. “But you know what? We do have two cars now. I’m gonna take it. Mikey, Ray—you two go ahead. I’ll finish packing first and Frank can go with me to the studio.”

“We can wait, if you want,” Ray offered first as he placed a hand on the door sill.

“No, it’s fine,“ I said with a smile.

“Alright. Be safe,” Mikey told both me and Frank before he opened the passenger side car door.

Ray waved a hand. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

I opened the garage, and watched as Mikey and Ray backed out onto the driveway. With one last wave, they sped off to the end of the street, so I closed the garage again.

Frank and I went back into the house, and I rushed back inside to go to my room. I opened my closet and moved the hangers on the right side until I found what I was looking for: my old school uniform.

Frank came in shortly, asking, “Do you need me to help you pick up some things?”

“Umm, no,” I replied as I took my outfit with me out of my room.

“Wait. What’s that?” Frank asked with a bent eyebrow as he pointed down at the clothes in my hands.

I looked up at him with my brow bent in guilt. “I lied.”

His eyes flashed, and then his jaw tightened. “What did you lie about?” he muttered with an unamused narrow of his eyes.

“I don’t need to pick up more things. Well, I mean, I guess, technically I did, but—”

“Leya, just spit it out,” Frank grumbled as he crossed his arms.

I winced. “I’m going to the police station.”

Frank’s eyes widened. "What?! The police station?! When we’re trying to run away from BL/ind agents?”

I put my hands up. “I’m trying to find Alicia. Mikey’s wife.”

Frank’s jaw dropped. “You know about her, about what happened?”

“Yeah, Mikey told me the story. And I think she might be here in Battery City. So I’m going to access the database at the police station to find out for sure.”

Frank rubbed at the scruff on his chin then put his hands on his hips as he shook his head. “And how do you plan to go about doing that? And why right now? And does Mikey know you’ve planned this?!”

“No, Mikey doesn’t know… He’d probably think it was crazy. And it was lucky of my dad to give me his car. Otherwise, I would have had a lot more trouble getting away today.”

Frank reached forward and grabbed my arm. Not roughly, but in a way where he was kind of pulling me aside to talk some sense into me.

“You’re crazy,” Frank slowly told me with his eyes staring widely into mine.

I pursed my lips. “One of my old friends from high school was the daughter of the chief of police. I’ll just pretend to be her, ask to see the chief—say I want to surprise him, so that they give me access to their offices, and that’s how I’ll get access into their computers.”

“What about when they realize that you’re not the chief’s daughter?”

“Hayley hated her father and she only lived with her mom. She was actually eager to be going to SCARECROW Academy, so that she could get away from home. She hasn’t seen her dad in years. At least, I’m hoping that nothing’s changed in the past two years. And I mean… she kind of looks like me… from behind…” I explained with a tilt of my head.

“And in case none of this works?” Frank questioned with a dry laugh.

“That’s where you come in.” Frank bent his eyebrow at me. "You’re going to cause a diversion.”

“How? And why aren’t we doing this with the other guys? And preferably with more than a couple minutes’ notice!” Frank complained.

"I already told you. Mikey would outright refuse. And, well, in case we don’t make it out, we need them to be safe.”

Frank nodded as he pursed his lips. “So we’re gonna go in, access the computers, then what?”

“See if Alicia’s alive, and maybe get any information we can on her.”

“And if we get arrested?” Frank asked.

“We’ve broken out of prison before,” I replied with a wink.

“This is insane, you know that right?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

Frank smirked. “Aw, fuck it. Let’s do this.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Is that seriously the school uniform?” Frank spat out.

“Yeah, why?” I answered as I smoothed down my gray skirt, the hem only reaching halfway down my thigh. I had on a gray jacket over a boring, white button-up blouse and then gray knee-high stockings and white Keds to top off the look. Hayley, the girl I’m supposed to impersonate today, is supposed to be in her last year of high school, so I have to dress like I’m still in high school.

“Umm… how is that appropriate?” Frank asked with a frown as he crossed his arms.

I shot a flat look to him. “I had to rebel in some way during high school… and this was before I liked wearing jeans.”

He shook his head. “So, you’re planning on luring out pervy police officers?”

“If that’s what it takes to get me access to their computers, yes.”

“Well, what about me?” he asked as he put up his hands with a sigh. “How am I supposed to blend in?”

I looked over his outfit, jeans and a white t-shirt, showing off all the tattoos on his arm and a bit of the ones on his chest.

“You’ll be fine. Just wear one of my dad’s jackets. And I’ll just say you’re… a cousin?”

Frank nodded, although he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, just the chief’s daughter and nephew surprising him. Remind me why I agreed to this again?”

“I didn’t give you a choice,” I told him with a smirk. “But all we’re going to do is find out where Alicia is. Hopefully.”

Frank nodded again before we went up to my parents’ room to pick out a blue jean jacket for him, and then we headed into the garage. The Silvia was waiting for me there, shining in its lustrous black paint, paint that still looked new, even though this car was ten years old. I rubbed a palm over the shiny hood. I can’t believe this is mine.

“This is a sick looking car!” Frank exclaimed.

“Yeah,” I nervously replied while I gripped the keys in my hand. “It used to be a racing car.”

“Really?” Frank asked as his eyebrows rose.

“Yeah, the guy who owned it busted it up pretty bad during a race, and pretty much trashed it, threw it away to a junk yard. So my dad took it and spent years fixing it up. Now it looks like this.”

“I wonder if it still drives like a race car, too…” Frank mused with a hand under his chin.

I swallowed. “Well… I hope we don’t have to find that out today.”

I got into the car, feeling the plush leather seats and looking over all the buttons. I adjusted the seat and the mirrors, then I put the key in the ignition as Frank sat down into the passenger seat.

“Nice…” he praised out loud again. “Dude, why do you always luck out with all the nice cars?”

I nervously laughed. “Lucked out is one way to put it…”

I just realized this car is manual-transmission. Thank God Mikey taught me how to drive stick-shift already. What was my dad even thinking, giving me this car? Maybe he hadn’t expected me to actually drive it…

“You ready?” Frank asked, looking at me carefully with his green-brown eyes.

I nodded and took in a gulp. “Here we go.”

The Silvia was very smooth to drive, much easier than the Firebird, so I lost all the tension in my nerves. The Silvia was also more comfortable to drive just for the fact that it was much smaller than the Firebird, more fitted to someone my size, and it was relatively quiet to drive, thanks to the alterations my dad had made to the design. The perfect getaway car, really.

We got to the central Battery City police station in District 6 in just twenty minutes. It was a three-story white building that spanned an entire city block.

The Police unit was separate from SCARECROW. SCARECROW mostly worked for BL/ind and their focus was border control, drug smuggling, “terrorism” and now military operations—i.e., they mostly targeted Killjoys and anyone and anything else that threatened BL/ind’s success and reputation. The Police in each district of Battery City, on the other hand, mostly dealt with the usual law & order: theft, assault, traffic violations, fraud, domestic disputes, etc.

Although, with the widespread use of BL/ind’s pharmaceuticals, crime had dropped significantly. People were too apathetic, lethargic, and too ingrained into the system to do anything criminal. It was actually one of the persuading factors for people to start taking BL/ind’s drugs in their ads—the suppression of “delinquent behavior,” that is, which was why it was also sometimes prescribed to “troubled minors” like me during my last year in high school. The police were actually losing their jobs, most of them moving on to serve SCARECROW. But the police stations were still important, containing huge databases on citizens in Battery City, history, and other official documented records.

It is in this database that I hope to find any clues to finding Mikey’s wife.

After I parked the car, I walked into the building with Frank just behind me. I’m still not sure this is going to work, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

There were only two guards standing at the entrance, who looked so bored that they hardly even acknowledged us. After a short corridor, we reached the main reception office. The walls were a dark gray and the counters were shining black, where two officers, one middle-aged, one who looked like he was in his twenties, were sat staring at computers.

I cleared my throat and walked up to the counter with Frank still just behind me. “Hi,” I said.

The older one with balding gray hair looked up at me. “Hi. Can I help you, miss?”

“My name is Hayley Atkins—my dad is Chief Atkins. Umm, I was just wondering if I could go into his office for a bit?” I asked, trying to keep my face and voice as casual as possible.

The police officer blinked at me once, then glanced over to Frank. “I’m sorry, Miss Atkins. He’s out right now.”

Perfect.

“Do you know when he’ll get back?” I asked.

“Umm, in a couple hours maybe. He’s on patrol right now.” he narrowed his eyes a bit. “Shouldn’t you have called your dad first?”

“Yeah—well, I actually haven’t seen him in a long time and I thought that maybe I could visit him—now I’m thinking I can just wait for him in his office and surprise him!” I sent him a wide smile.

The other police officer started to take notice of me, and was now staring over at us. Why did that make me feel nervous?

Frank must have guessed how I was feeling, because at that second he reached over and placed a warm hand on the small of my back.

“…I’m afraid I can’t do that. These offices are meant for police staff only. You understand, don’t you?”

“But sir, I’m his daughter!” I protested, hoping my acting skills were coming through.

The police officer shrugged and tilted his head to the side. “I know, but I’m not supposed to let anyone who is unauthorized through those doors. I’m sorry. Well, why don’t you call your dad and let him know you’re here?”

“Well, the thing is…” I looked down and started to make my eyes water—which wasn’t hard because I cry all the time. “…I don’t know if you know this. But me and my dad, we haven’t been on the best of terms the past few years, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I want to give this a shot before I graduate and before I’m off to SCARECROW Academy. And I couldn’t just call him up—it never ends well when we talk on the phone. So I thought I could come here instead. Just… give me this chance to make things right with my dad. Please.”

I pouted up at the officer and I could see his stern frown breaking. He made a big sigh.

“Oh… alright. But only you!” he said, while he darted his eyes between Frank and me.

I turned to Frank and grasped at his jacket sleeve. Then I looked back at the officer. “Please let him in with me, too. We both wanted to surprise my dad.”

“Who exactly is this guy? I know John doesn’t have a son…” he said with a bend of his eyebrows.

“This is my—boyfriend,” I answered as I smiled up at Frank and grabbed his left bicep. “Yeah, I wanted him to meet my dad.”

“Yeah—you know, figure I have to meet the old man sometime—if we’re going to be dating. Haha,” Frank awkwardly replied as he put a hand over mine.

The police officer pursed his lips and rolled his eyes. “Fine, you can go in, too.”

“Thank you, sir!” I exclaimed. “This really means a lot.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he said as he stood up. He waved a hand. “Come on through this door, and I’ll lead you to John's—your father’s office.”

“Okay,” I replied with a smile. As soon as he disappeared, Frank and I turned to each other. We still couldn’t really say anything or let go of each other because the other police officer was right there. So we just looked at each other and exchanged sheepish grins.

He still had his hand over mine and I still had mine gripped onto his bicep. I hoped this looked couple-y enough, even though it’s pretty normal for us. Which made me think about what Mikey said, how he thought that I was in love with Frank—was it things like this that made him think that? Is this appropriate touching for friends? Why am I thinking about all this right now?

Then the older officer opened up the door at the partition of the main office, and beckoned us through. Just two doors down this hallway, he opened up a door that had a brass nameplate on it: “CHIEF ATKINS.”

“Let me know if you need anything else. I’m Officer Ryan,” the middle-aged police man told me.

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” I said just before I walked in. Frank walked in after me, and we waited until we couldn’t hear Officer Ryan’s footsteps before we spoke a word.

I released a big exhale I hadn’t realized I had been holding in for the past few minutes. Frank also breathed out in a whistle.

I looked around and the office was a bit small, and lit up by fluorescent lights. It was occupied with just a large desk with a computer on it, two chairs on one side of the room, and then a shelf full of cases of what I assumed were discs, probably evidence for something. On the desk, Chief Atkins had a picture of his wife and a small girl, who I assumed was Hayley. Good thing there’s not a more recent picture of her around here.

“So what happened to the plan about making me your cousin?” Frank asked me with a chuckle as he turned to me with his arms crossed.

“I don’t know… I got nervous and boyfriend was the first thing to come to mind,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders and looked down to the side with a blush.

“Well, he bought it,” Frank remarked with a flick of his eyebrow.

“Yeah… Yeah, he did,” I said. Then we fell into an awkward silence, so I cleared my throat. “Right, the computer—the database—Alicia!”

I moved over to sit at the Chief’s desk, then turned on the computer and logged on. Frank paced around, looking at all the things in the room while I opened up the database. I didn’t really know my way around this software, but the site was easily navigable. I eventually found a tab where I could look up names and traffic violation records. Even if you don’t have an existing ticket, your name shows up.

Then I clicked on the name Alicia Way, and saw that there was an extra drop-down list of criminal offenses next to her name. I clicked it and it said “Conspirator against government/Party to conspiratorial organization”

I decided to look her name up now in the criminal record directory, and up came results with the following columns: Incarcerated, Battery City Central Prison, and the address of the building we were in. Right next to it was a mugshot of a woman with dark hair, a pale complexion, and blue eyes, with a lot of dark eye makeup on.

“What did you find?” Frank said as he came over to lean over me and look at the computer monitor.

“Frank! This says that she’s… a prisoner. Of this jail!” I exclaimed as I looked back at him.

“What?” he peered closer into the computer screen. He narrowed his eyes as he read the data. “She got arrested for conspiracy… Was that why she never showed up back—wait—so she’s somewhere here?”

“I think so… We should go look for her,” I suggested. “Try and get her out.”

Frank turned to me with a considering look. “Do you know how to go about this?”

I looked down briefly. “No. But… I’ve helped break you out of prison before.”

“That ended in us exploding the prison,” Frank remarked with a breath of laugh.

I gulped. “I know… but… maybe this time, it won’t be as hard. After all, we’re dealing with regular police.”

Frank nodded, then rubbed at his chin. He looked at me. “The inmates of this prison must be on another floor. Can you find a map?”

“I can try,” I said as I started poking more around the files on this computer. I eventually came across a prison legend. Prisoners were held on the second and third floor, women and men respectively. Now the only question is how are we going to get there unnoticed and how are we going to find Alicia and what are we even going to do if we find her?

Frank was looking at the legend with me when he started cracking his knuckles. “Leave the breaking out to me. If we can distract the guards, and buy us enough time to find Alicia, I can get her out.”

“How?” I asked.

Frank opened his jacket and revealed the bright ray gun in his holster. He curved his lips into a smirk. “The way I usually do things.”

I swallowed nervously.

Frank placed a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered with a brief smile.

I was looking down, but I noticed Frank get closer.

“Look, we don’t need to do anything right now,” he told me in a soft voice. “We can always come back with Ray and Mikey, plan this more properly.”

I shook my head and breathed out a laugh. “No, don’t be silly. We’re already here. And it’s not like we’re going to get another chance to get access here. After today, that Chief is going to know that someone came here saying they were his daughter, and he’s probably going to know that she didn’t really come here.”

“Okay.” Frank looked at me with careful eyes.

We moved out of the chief’s office and down the hallway, trying not to make much noise, and hoping we didn’t run into anyone. After two flights in the stairwell, we emerged onto the second floor, which was empty except for one guard patrolling the main corridor.

“What do we do now?” I whispered to Frank.

“Distraction time,” he whispered back.

“Oh man!” Frank groaned really loud as he started walking into the corridor and grabbed at his lower abdomen. I followed, not exactly knowing where he was going with this.

The guard whipped around and started walking toward us. “What are you two doing up here?”

Frank turned back to me and whispered through his teeth, “Follow my lead.”

“Oh, good! You’re here!” he exclaimed with a sigh as he grinned at the guard. “Can you tell us where the nearest bathroom is?”

“There should be bathrooms on the first floor,” the guard grumbled. He had closely cropped black hair and he only looked a few years older than me.

“Yeah, those didn’t work,” Frank answered.

“They didn’t work?” the guard answered with narrowed eyes.

I cleared my throat. “No, it was backed up. And gross. And… um… well, I kind of have a lady emergency!”

The guard’s eyes widened and he cleared his throat. “Oh, well… You two are not supposed to be up here.”

I twisted my face into a desperate pout. “Please… you don’t understand how horrible it is—I mean, I didn’t even think I was supposed to get my period until—”

“Fine! You can find the bathroom if you go down this corridor here—but be sure to turn right,” the guard replied in a flustered voice as he tried not to look me directly in the eye. “DO NOT TURN LEFT. That’s the prison ward. TURN TO THE RIGHT.”

“Is there also a bathroom I can go to?” Frank asked. “I had some pretty gross coffee today, and I’m a bit lactose intolerant, so…”

The guard groaned and narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take you to the bathroom on the third floor.”

He darted his eyes back to me in confusion. “You can go,” he told me, waiting for me to move.

“Oh, okay, thanks!” I cheerfully replied, skipping down the corridor, but also looking back to see Frank and the guard, who disappeared from sight.

I’m not sure this was exactly what Frank planned, but at least this floor is unoccupied now.

I went down the corridor, but then turned to the left where the guard told me to turn right. Sure enough, here is where the prisoner’s cell ward started.

It wasn’t like what I would picture a typical jail to be like. For one, it was brightly lit, and two, there weren’t metal bars or concrete or anything. Instead, the cells here were bordered with glass, and all the walls were white. It reminded me of a pet shop, the way these cells were stacked on one another. There was a steel walkway that I could use to get access to the cells that were higher up, but for now, I simply walked through the bottom level.

As I walked on, I noticed all the people in the cells sitting, lying down, staring… just looking lethargic. It didn’t help that it was silent except for my footsteps and my breathing, making this even more creepy.

I looked into every single cell, trying to see if the person in there resembled Mikey’s wife. I had probably looked at 40 different women, but none of them quite looked like the woman in the photo on the database. I had about ten cells left before I reached the end of the row.

After I passed two more cells, I looked very closely at a woman with wavy, brown hair, who was thin, long-limbed, and sat slumped in the corner in her white prison uniform. Her chin was pointed down and I could barely see her face from here, but I saw something on the inside of her left wrist. It looked like a flaming heart—a tattoo. I looked closer at the tattooed ribbon and it had the word “forever” inside it. Oh shit.

I wanted to call for Frank and ask if this was Alicia. But he was too far away.

I don’t know what to do. First of all, I have to find out if this is her. Second, I have to figure out how to get her out of here. I’d either need to get a key or break her out somehow. Which Frank said he would… maybe I could find him and bring him back here.

But first things first.

I glanced behind me to see if any guards were patrolling this aisle. None were. Then I went up to the glass, and tapped. It felt a bit rude to do that, like how they always tell you not to tap on the glass of aquariums because it disturbs fish.

The woman slowly turned her head toward me, a blank stare in her eyes. This looks a lot like the woman in the picture on the database, but I’m not entirely sure.

I saw a button pad next to the glass and pressed what looked like a speaker button.

“Hi,” I said after clearing my throat. “Are you Alicia?”

She just stared at me and then weakly stood up, using the wall as a support.

“Is your name Alicia?” I asked again. “That tattoo on your arm. It’s a matching one, isn’t it? With Mikey?”

“Mikey?” she croaked out as her eyes widened. “Mikey…” she whispered again, mostly to herself. Or maybe all to herself. She wasn’t even looking me in the eye.

“Mikey is your husband, right?” I asked.

“Mikey…” she whispered out again as she looked down at her tattoo. It was now that I noticed that her right arm had a full sleeve of colored tattoos as well. If this is really Alicia, Mikey definitely wasn’t kidding about her being tough. Of course, Frank has tattoos all over his body, and he’s not really a tough guy, but I mean, the guy does go through a lot of pain and smiles through it—I guess he kind of is a tough guy—

I shook my head to get out all the needless thoughts and focused on the present, here in front of a woman who may be Alicia, _trying to get her out of here_.

“I can take you to Mikey,” I told Alicia. “I just need to get you out of here.”

“Mikey,” she repeated, her blue eyes looking more resolute as she walked toward me.

I took in a deep breath. God, I really hope this is the right person.

“Who… are you?” she asked.

I was about to answer when I heard the door open at the end of the corridor. It was the same young guard we encountered before. But where was Frank?

He had a frown on his face as he started taking big strides down the corridor.

“Did you get lost? I said take the turn to the right!” the guard scolded. He stopped walking when he saw me near the glass. “What are you doing?”

“I was just—” I started.

"Don’t talk to them,” he interrupted. “Don’t even look at them. They’re all demented.”

I creased my brow. “They’re humans. Locked up in glass cages. Of course they all would be shaken by that.”

The guard sighed. “Miss, just come back with me. It’s not good for a girl like you to be here.”

I glanced back at the girl behind the glass. She was looking at me with desperation now.

The guard put his hands on his hips and then walked toward me. “Miss, don’t make me drag you back.”

I waited until he walked right up to me before I answered.

“I know… it’s just… I feel so bad for them,” I said as I looked down and crossed my arms under my chest.

He came over and rested an arm over my shoulder. “That’s why a girl like you shouldn’t see this kind of thing. It’d only upset you.”

“You’re right. I am upset,” I answered just before grabbed at his arm, then jammed my left elbow into his stomach. He choked out a grunt as he bent his torso over while I ducked out from under his arm and sent a knee up into his chest. He reached for his taser gun but I was too quick for him. I reached up and kicked at his face, then sent a punch into the side of his temple, knocking him out—just like Mikey taught me.

The guard fell down in a heap and I immediately searched his pockets for a key. Surely, he had to have some sort of access to the inmates’ cells. I picked up a ring of key cards and went back to the glass cell where Alicia (presumably) was waiting with her palms against the glass.

I was sweating in my school jacket as I rushed over to try some of the keys against the sensor of the door.

“The gold one,” the girl croaked out in the small holes so I could hear her.

I quickly found a gold plated card key and slipped it in front of the sensor. After a second, it lit up blue and the glass opened up from the bottom.

The girl slumped out toward me, and I noticed she didn’t even have shoes on.

“Come on!” I said as I grabbed her wrist and pulled her with me.

*BOOM*

The door at the end of the hall opened forward again and I froze, Alicia’s skinny arm still in mine. But I breathed out a sigh of relief as I saw Frank’s face emerge from behind that gray door.

“Thank God,” I sighed out.

“Alicia?!” he gasped, his eyes widened.

“Frank…?” Alicia croaked out. She was a lot taller than me, but the way she was stooped, she looked very small.

“We gotta get out of here,” Frank quickly told me as he ran up to the both of us. He brought one of Alicia’s arms over his shoulder and his other around her waist.

“Frankie… you cut your hair,” Alicia whispered out as she looked over the top of his head.

Frank smirked at the side of his mouth.

“How are we supposed to get out of here with her?” I asked Frank.

“I don’t know…” he muttered. Then he looked between me, Alicia, and himself. “Take off your jacket,” he told me.

I did as told, but also looked on at him in confusion as he started to unbuckle his belt.

“What are you doing?” I asked after I had pulled the jacket sleeve off my left arm.

Frank had now dropped his pants to the floor, and was wriggling his feet out of them. “Alicia, give me your pants.”

She looked down and creased her brow. “What?” she weakly asked.

“You’re going to wear my jeans. Here. Let’s trade,” Frank said as he picked up his jeans and tossed them over to me.

Alicia looked on at him in confusion, her arms resting idly at her sides.

I sighed. “I’m sorry about this,” I said just before I reached at her band line and pulled her white pants down to her ankles.

She startled and twitched as I did so, but lifted up her feet for me to take them off. I tossed them over to Frank.

“Alicia, do you think you can put on those jeans yourself?” Frank asked as he slipped on her white ones.

She looked down at the jeans I was holding. “Why?”

“We need you to blend in, and not look like an inmate,” Frank replied as he pointed his chin at me.

“What about you?” I asked. “With those pants—”

“We’ll worry about that if it comes up,” Frank interrupted me. “For now, Alicia just needs to get dressed.

She nodded, and then finally put on the jeans—which surprisingly fit her well, even if they were a bit short for her long legs—and the gray school jacket, and then the three of us walked down the stairwell back to the ground floor.

"Just act natural,” Frank whispered to me as he held Alicia close. She looked pale and stark, staring ahead of her, just like she was in the cell.

We had just got ahead of the main desk when one of the officers called out to us.

“You’re leaving already? John hasn’t come back yet.” It was Officer Ryan who addressed us.

“Yeah… I, uh… changed my mind,” I answered, while trying to somewhat conceal Alicia with my own body—although considering I’m a hobbit and she’s taller than Frank, it wasn’t working so well.

We turned back around to the doors, Alicia in front of us. “Hey!” Officer Ryan called out again. We stopped and reluctantly looked back. Frank gulped, even as he held Alicia in a tight grip.

Officer Ryan creased his brows as he noticed Alicia. “Wait—who are you? I don’t remember seeing you before…”

I glanced at Frank quickly, looking into his hazel eyes for direction. They were hard and resolute as he darted them to the right. “Let’s just get her out of here. Now,” he whispered.

Frank pushed me forward with a hand on my back and I didn’t take a second to hesitate. I held Alicia close to me, then pushed my way through the doors to the front corridor.

“Hey!” I heard Officer Ryan protest from behind us.

The heavy door closed behind us as we darted away. After a few seconds, we reached the glass doors of the main entrance, guards waiting right there. I glanced over at Alicia, who still had a dead look in her eyes.

One of the guards was just sitting down completing his crossword puzzle book. As soon as we got near the other guard, she narrowed her eyes at us.

“Hey—” she started, but we kept walking on to the glass doors. As soon as I pushed one of the doors open, I heard a siren start blaring and the door suddenly felt 10 times heavier. I briefly let go of Alicia to push with all my might.

“Come on!” I urged to Alicia as I struggled under its weight.

“Hey! You three—you stay right in here!” the female guard yelled as she stood up and started to approach us.

Alicia quickly shuffled forward, her eyes widened.

As soon as she stepped over the threshold, the door felt a bit heavier and I was losing the battle against it. Then I saw Frank’s hand slam onto the glass door and push it open several inches more.

“Get out! And take Alicia!” Frank growled out as he sent me a fierce gaze. “She’s the most important thing right now!”

I briefly looked up at Frank nervously before I slinked through the small space between the door and outside. I whipped around just to see the door slam right behind me in front of Frank’s face.

I looked back at him in horror, but he shouted at me “Get out of here!” from the inside, just as the female guard closely approached him with a baton brandished in her arms.

“Go!” he screamed again, and this time I whipped around to see Alicia waiting for me, her face looking ghostly white as she held onto her arms.

“Come on,” I urged Alicia as I grabbed her hand and ran out into the parking lot to my car. I hoped that the prison was locked down so that not even the police could get out, but what did that mean for Frank? I can’t just leave him here, can I?!

I opened my car, and urged Alicia to jump in behind the passenger seat into the back. Then I got into the driver seat and turned the car on, hearing it softly purr. As I held the wheel tight in my hands, I wondered what to do next.

Frank is still in there. Shit. And if he gets arrested, that’s it for him. This wasn’t even his idea in the first place—it was mine! And now he might get arrested and stuck in jail—just because of me!

I thought about maybe letting Alicia drive this car, but I looked back at her, and she was just huddled into herself, holding herself by the arms and looking down at her knees. She was definitely not fit to be driving anywhere.

Shit—what do I do?


	7. Chapter 7

I couldn’t waste any more time. The answer was simple.

I can’t leave Frank here. And I won’t.

I reversed the car out of the parking space and drove back just until I was in front of the main doors. I put the car in park and pulled up the emergency brake.

“Just stay in here!” I hushed out to Alicia, who was looking at me in wide-eyed confusion. “If anything happens, you just get out of here, alright?”

Before she could say anything, I stepped out of the car and slammed the door, simultaneously pulling my ray gun out from the back of my skirt, where I had it strapped.

I skipped over to those same glass doors, and I peered inside. No one was in this front area. I wonder what happened…

I pulled at the door handle, and of course, it didn’t budge because it was locked shut. I pointed my ray gun at the glass door, hoping the laser didn’t ricochet–and fired.

At first a few cracks were made. So I kept shooting at the same part until I could see a bit of the shattered glass caving in. I smashed my ray gun into the center, where it was caved in and some of the glass started to fall in chips. This was taking too long.

I did something very stupid next–I kicked right in the center of the glass door very hard and even more glass started to fall onto my legs, scraping up my knee and cutting my leg through my stocking. Not to mention my toes fucking hurt now.

But enough of the glass had shattered and fallen to the floor so that I could step through. I shook away the pain in my leg and skipped through to the main corridor to see Frank cornered up against the wall with one of the male cops slammed up against him. The female cop from before was standing off to the side with her baton still brandished.

“Get off him!” I yelled as I felt my arms buzz from all the adrenaline. I held up my ray gun and the two guards looked this way.

Frank turned his head to the side and saw me. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he hissed out.

I ignored him and walked up close. “Please let him go, or I’ll shoot.”

“Dora, arrest her!” the male cop barked out.

Dora walked up to me and reached for what looked like a taser in her pocket. I backed up. I looked up and shot lasers up at the lights in the hallway ceiling. The bulbs shattered and everything went completely dark. I shuffled to the side against the wall and saw an electric spark travel through the air. That lady still hadn’t found me.

“You won’t be able to run far from me!” she growled out in the dark.

I tried to remember what everything looked like before I hit the lights and I listened to hear everyone’s breathing, to try and pinpoint Frank’s. I heard him grunting as he struggled against the cop who had him, so I skipped in that direction.

My eyes had adjusted a little bit to the darkness and I could barely make out a vague shape against the wall. There wasn’t much I could do, so I just lunged forward near the figured and wrapped my arms around what I could, which was this guy’s chest and neck. I pulled him back, and he started to shout.

“Gah–Dora! She’s here!”

I let go of the guy and ducked down to the ground. The cop started to yell out in pain. The electric current was still visible as the taser stung him, letting me know exactly where to not run.

“Bill! Damn it!” Dora growled out.

“Frank, are you here?” I whispered out as I was still crouched down.

“Yeah,” he hoarsely whispered back.

I crawled on the ground, groping for him in the dark. When I finally grabbed what felt like his leg, Frank reached down and helped me stand up.

The female guard was still at large, though. “Where did they go?!” she yelled.

We started running even though it was still pitch black until we pushed out into the front room. Gray light spilled into the corridor and we could finally see again. I rushed to the shattered hole that I made in the front glass door, and Frank quickly followed. I darted through just fine, but Frank hissed as he caught part of his clothes and his temple along the jagged edges of glass.

I reached for his hand and pulled him with me to run back to my car, which was still rumbling, parked in front of the station. I sprinted to the driver’s side while Frank got into the passenger seat. I glanced once more back to the station and saw more officers come out through those glass doors, which were now unlocked again.

“Shit, they’re shooting!” Frank shouted as he ducked down into his seat.

Indeed, the cops were firing rounds–not lasers, but actual fucking bullets–and hitting the car.

“Oh, shit,” I breathed out as I released the emergency brake and tried to push the car into gear again.

“Alicia, get down!” Frank yelled as he reached toward the backseat.

I finally got the gears to stop grinding and I floured it out of the parking lot. I could see the police officers running to their squad cars through my rear-view mirror.

“Oh, fuck,” I hissed out as I drove as fast as I could, not even really paying attention to where I was going.

“Relax–we can ditch ‘em!” Frank told me as he finally sat up straight. He was bleeding by his temple from the cut he received from jumping through that shattered door.

“Well, where are we supposed to go?” I frantically asked, driving through the gray streets, which were becoming busier the farther I went.

“Just keep going down this way–we’ll get to District 7 soon…” Frank told me as he peered through the back window.

“Where are we supposed to meet Mikey and Ray? Do you know how to get there?” I asked as I came to a red light. Shit. Police could be catching up right now.

“Oh–no… but I have the address written down. Does this car have a GPS system in it?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know!” I squeaked out. My heart was pounding. I swear I could see flashing blue lights in my rear-view mirror, even though it was pretty foggy right now.

Frank opened the glove box and dug around while I waited for the light to turn green–IT WAS TAKING FOREVER. To top it off, a few sprinkles of rain started to dot up the windshield.

“Frank–what if the cops follow us? What if they find out where we’re going to hide and what if–”

“Shut up, Leya! Don’t you start freaking out right now. We’re going to be fine!” Frank leaned over and placed a hand on my shoulder. “We already made it out of there alive, right? The hard part’s over.”

I quickly nodded my head as I gulped. Then the light turned green.

I stepped on the gas once more and weaved through other cars to get ahead, while Frank took out what looked like some clunky, black electronic thing from the glove box.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“GPS, thank fuck,” Frank sighed out. He pressed a button and turned it on. “Go through this alleyway here!”

I turned a sharp right into a dark alleyway, and three seconds later, I heard sirens blare loudly. I glanced at my rear-view mirror, and saw a flash of blue go through the street we just turned from.

“CONTINUE STRAIGHT TOWARDS 17th STREET,” an electronic voice announced from the device in Frank’s hands.

I exhaled deeply and drove the car through this alley once more.

“You think we lost them?” I asked.

“I hope so…” Frank remarked. “Are there many cars like this around Battery City?”

“I really doubt it,” I muttered. Then I looked up in my mirror and saw Alicia, looking a bit green in the face, her head down while she slumped against the backseat. “Alicia? Are you okay?”

I turned my head and glanced back, and Frank followed my gaze.

“Alicia? Can you hear me?” Frank asked as I drove on.

“Alicia?” he asked again, turning around and leaning over to the backseat.

She looked up quickly this time, her eyes still weary with bags underneath them, but looking brighter than ever. “Frank?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” he replied.

“This is real? This isn’t just another hallucination?” she asked, her voice shaking.

Frank shook his head. “Nope. It’s the real deal. You’re out of that place.“

Alicia started to choke out a sob.

“Hey… it’s going to be all right. The worst is over,” Frank said as he put a comforting hand on her knee. “We’re taking you home to Mikey.”

“God, Mikey!” she sobbed out into her hands. She sniffed, then said, “How long has it been?”

Frank scratched his head. “Since we left?”

She nodded.

"Three years,” Frank said with a quiet voice.

“Oh god…“ Alicia groaned as her voice grew thick.

"TURN LEFT AT FELIX AVENUE” the GPS announced again.

“We looked for you for a long time. Didn’t realize that you’d been… here,” Frank solemnly said as he looked down.

“A lot has happened, hasn’t it?” Alicia asked, sounding a bit clearer headed than she had the entire past hour.

Frank nodded. “It’s all over now, though. Well, sort of. What matters is that we’re finally bringing you home.” He smiled at her. “We missed you.”

Alicia broke out into a sob as she reached forward. She grasped at Frank’s hand. “I missed everyone, too. You have no idea… no idea what it’s been like…”

Frank hugged her close as she sobbed, and they spent the rest of the ride like that, until we came across a neighborhood full of small apartments, most of them gray or black, looking even darker under the gloom of Battery City’s smog.

I parked the car in an alleyway just outside of the garage of a small square flat.

“You sure this is it?” I asked Frank.

“207 Manchester. This should be it,” he said as he stepped out of the car. “We’ll make sure to move your car into the garage once we get inside. In case the police are still patrolling…”

I gulped. I didn’t want to think about that right now. My head was spinning with all the adrenaline, the horror, and the latent relief of rescuing Alicia and actually making it to this apartment in one piece.

Frank and I helped her get out of the car, since she was still a bit weak. I smoothed out her frizzed hair and wiped at her tear-stained eyes, so she could look at least a bit more put together before she got reunited with Mikey. She was still wearing my school jacket and Frank’s jeans, which kind of clashed a bit, and she still didn’t have shoes on.

She smiled at me and clasped at my wrist. “Thank you.”

I smiled back. “It was nothing. Really.”

She tensed her brow. “That was not nothing. You saved my life back there. I’d still be rotting in jail if it weren’t for the two of you.” She had such an intense stare in her blue eyes, it made you not want to argue with her.

Frank beamed over at her. “Which is why it was the least we could do.”

Alicia smiled at him. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Frankie. And the others, right?”

Frank nodded, and then we went up the iron stairs to the front door of the flat. The door hadn’t been locked, and judging from the scuff marks on the door sill, it looked like it had been forced open. Frank pushed open the door and we walked in.

“Mikey! Ray!” Frank called out as the three of us stepped inside the flat, closing the door behind us. The large white room we were in was empty, the wooden floor carpeted with a faint layer of dust.

“What took you so long?“ Ray asked as he came clopping in from one of the hallways.

Mikey was just a second later than him and his eyes immediately darted to Alicia and doubled in size.

Alicia had her eyes on him as well, and she choked out a “Mikey.”

“Alicia?” Mikey gasped out, blinking rapidly as if he were just seeing an illusion.

She fervently nodded and walked out of my hold to rush to him. Mikey skipped forward and caught her halfway, then embraced her tightly, lifting her up off the ground a few inches. With his face buried in her hair, I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could see him grinning while tears went down his face.

I couldn’t help but tear up at the sight, either. Frank tapped me lightly on the arm and mouthed, “You okay?”

I nodded while I wiped away my forming tears. “Look how happy they are,” I whispered over to him as I turned my head back to Mikey and Alicia, who were still in a tight embrace.

Mikey had now pulled away and was just holding Alicia’s face in his hands, smiling brighter than I’d ever seen him smile before. His eyes were shining, his cheeks were red, and I don’t think I’d ever seen him with this toothy of a grin for such an extended period of time.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” he breathlessly told her.

She brought a hand over his and replied, “Me either.”

“I never should have yelled at you that night–I was an asshole. A stupid, stupid, stupid–” He paused to kiss the side of her head three times.

“I should have gone with you to the meeting!” Alicia protested. “Then none of this would have–”

“No, I should have come back for you sooner. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Mikey was sobbing out.

Ray quickly shuffled over to us while Frank cleared his throat. “Well, I guess we should leave them on their own to talk out everything.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Frank wrapped an arm around my shoulder as we walked off with Ray into the next room, which was only slightly less empty than this one, with what looked like an old stereo system and speakers in the corner of the room.

“Alicia?!” Ray exclaimed in a whisper, his curls shaking as he pointed in her direction.

Frank nodded. “Yeah, it was all this nut’s little idea,” he said as he squeezed at my right shoulder.

Ray looked over at me. “How did you know where to find her? How did you even know she was in Battery City?”

“I didn’t,” I answered. “I was just going to look into the police department’s database, see if anything about her showed up, even if it was a death record.”

“So you’ve been planning this?” Ray asked with a raised eyebrow. “For how long?”

I shrugged. “Not long at all. But me and Frank got through it fine enough.”

“I’d say so… except you got a bit of red on you,” Ray muttered to Frank as he shook his head and laughed.

“It’s just a scratch, Toro,” Frank retorted as he turned his head away to hide the bleeding scratches on the side of his head.

“AND YOU GOT ALICIA. ALICIA,” Ray softly exclaimed, clearly not wanting the couple in the next room to hear him, but still being incredibly excited about it.

“Yes, that was kind of the main point, Toro,” Frank giggled.

Ray nodded. “Of course…” Then he looked at me. “Leya! That was really–”

“What? Dangerous? Stupid? Crazy? I know…” I said as I looked down.

“I was going to say 'brave,'” Ray told me with a gentle gaze in his light brown eyes.

I instinctively raised my eyebrows at this.

“You went through all that trouble just to bring Alicia back to Mikey, didn’t you?” he asked.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Well, yeah, i guess.”

“You went through that risk, not even knowing if she was alive or not, just for his sake?” Ray asked.

I sighed. “Well… I just had a feeling… she was alive.”

Ray nodded with a complacent smile. Then he laughed. “I gotta say… that was a pretty huge surprise, though. Did not see it coming. I’m surprised Mikey didn’t collapse.”

“I didn’t want to say anything in case… well, in case things didn’t turn out positive,” I explained. “You know, I didn’t want to give him false hope.”

Ray nodded again. “Yeah, I get it. Are you guys good, though? Everything went smooth, I gather?”

“Ha, not exactly,” Frank snorted. “We had a bit of a situation and the police are out there looking for us. So we need to move Leya’s car into the garage.”

Ray fished in his pockets and pulled out car keys. “There should be room for both of the cars.”

“Thanks, Toro,” Frank said as Ray tossed him the keys.

“Feel free to unpack your stuff once you get done with that. This place needs a bit of work with the plumbing and there’s some water damage on parts of the floors and walls, but it’s decent.”

Ray smiled over at me, so I returned one. “Thanks, Ray.”

Frank and I walked back through the front room, past Mikey and Alicia who were still standing and holding each other, staring like nothing else in the world existed. As far as I was concerned, nothing did.

Moving the car into the garage was quick business, but Frank lingered before going back into the flat. He was moving the keys between his hands as he leaned against the hood of the gray car.

“Hey… are you sure you’re okay?“ he asked as he looked over at me. "I mean, it must be kind of hard for you to see Mikey like that…”

“Like what?” I asked.

Frank cleared his throat and looked down. “Well, you know… Look–I know about the kiss between you and Mikey.”

I took a second to take that in and then I smirked.“I know you know.”

“What—you do?” Frank asked with wide eyes.

“Well, I had a feeling. You didn’t exactly make it a secret,” I said with a laugh.

Frank bit his lip and shook his head. “Look, I just–”

“You don’t have to explain it,” I told him with a raise of my hand.

He nodded.“So… do you have feelings for Mikey? Is that why you were crying in there? I’d understand.”

I blinked at Frank. “It’s not what you think.”

Frank tensed his brow.

I crossed my arms and continued, “Frank, I’ve never seen him look that happy. I could never make him look like that, and at least as long as I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at Alicia. Or the way he talks about her. He’s in love with her. And she’s still in love with him. It’s beautiful. And I guess that made me tear up because… all I want is for Mikey to be happy. And he finally is.”

“He was happy even when she wasn’t here, you know,“ Frank replied.

“Not that kind of happy,” I answered with a shake of my head. “That’s like _true_ happiness.”

Frank exhaled through his nose and stood up from the hood of the car.He moved closer to me with a serious, but gentle look on his face. “Leya, are you happy?”

He had brought that up for the second time this week. Of course, last time he addressed it, I still lived in a world where I thought my sister might still be alive.

“I feel like that question gets harder to answer each time I get asked,” I answered with a dark laugh.

“How can I make you happy, then?” Frank asked.

I looked up at him skeptically. His eyes were solemn as he stared down at me. He looked guilty.

"I’m happy when I’m with you,” I answered with a slight smile. “When I’m with all of you–Mikey and Ray, too, I mean. All I need to be happy is to be with people I care about.”

Frank blinked and nodded. Then he reached his hands up to the back of his neck. After a couple seconds, he unfastened the black cord he had around his neck and held it out in front of me.

“I’m done making promises I can’t keep,” he said as he looked down at the medallion, hanging from the cord. He looked back at me. “So I’m not going to promise you that I’ll be able to stay by your side always, but you’ll always have a piece of me to stay with you.”

He reached for my left wrist and dropped the necklace into my hand, enclosing my own fist around it. He pursed his lips and smiled at me. “That’s not something I just give away, you know.”

“Frank,” I exhaled, not really knowing what to say. He was giving me his freaking necklace???

“Wear it, and I’ll always be with you. Well, sort of,” he told me just before he reached over and predictably ruffled up the top of my hair until it was a tangled mess.

“Thank you,” I said as I reached around him and hugged him.

I felt warm tears come out of my eyes. It had become so regular a thing I didn’t question it anymore, but I didn’t want him to see, so I kept my head down.

I couldn’t help feeling that this was some way of his to say goodbye. Why did it feel like he was always saying goodbye to me?

  
  


After we went back inside the flat, there was some more regrouping, a proper meal, and we all sat around in the main room while Alicia told the story of how she got thrown in prison.

“I was going to leave with you. I really was,” she said while holding Mikey’s hand as they sat cross-legged on the floor.

“But the police… they knew about the rebel group meeting. And they knew that Mikey was a part of it. And they stopped by just an hour after Mikey left to the meeting. They were coming to arrest him.” Alicia sighed as she looked down. “I’ve hated myself every day since for opening that door.At first, they just said that I was to come into the station for questioning. I figured, 'Okay, all I got to do is just answer their questions but not give anything away. Make it seem like we’re not involved with anyone.’ But then…” she looked down at her wrists. “They had surveillance of you guys entering the sewers. Somebody had sold your group out. I couldn’t really argue against concrete evidence and I didn’t convince them that I hadn’t known about anything. So they arrested me just for being associated with you, as some kind of conspiracy or treason crap and stuck me in that jail. I wasn’t able to do anything. Not even a trial or anything. Not even a fucking phone call!”

Mikey was looking down, his jaw tight, his hands balled into fists. “I should have been there with you, damn it.”

Alicia turned to Mikey with a sympathetic gaze. “You didn’t know that was going to happen.”

“Still! I should have just stayed…” he threw his face into his palms. Alicia reached a hand over and coaxed at his back.

“Mikey, it’s alright. I forgive you,” she whispered to him.

Mikey had started tearing up while Alicia hugged him close to her.

Frank, Ray, and I looked between each other. Alicia turned back to us while still coaxing Mikey.

“After that, it was just days, months of sitting alone in a room.”

“You seem alright. I mean–you seem normal now. They didn’t make you take pills or anything?” I asked.

Alicia shook her head and creased her brow. “No… why? Is that a thing?”

I tilted my head. “Kind of… at least in the SCARECROW prisons.”

“SCARECROW prisons?” Alicia asked. “What’s SCARECROW?”

“Right–those weren’t created until after we’d been in the Zones for a while…” Ray remarked. “SCARECROW is the police unit that serves Better Living Industries. BLI actually kind of runs everything now. When we left, it was just the beginning.”

Alicia looked confused as she stared at all of us.“So what happened while I’ve been in jail? And Gerard… is he…?” She looked at Mikey with a look of guilt on her brow.

“This is a very long story…” Frank sighed. He looked down and then swallowed. “Well, it’s been three years since we left Battery City. Jamia and the other girls, they went up north. We went east. And we kind of got into it really bad with the leader of SCARECROW, Korse…”

Frank went into a long riff about the history of the Fabulous Killjoys, with interjections from Ray and Mikey. It was a long story to tell, and it was a bit strange to see someone who didn’t know anything about SCARECROW or Killjoys hear everything for the first time. It was when Frank got around to explaining what happened to Gerard that Alicia really just looked exhausted.

“Gerard is the leader of Battery City? And he’s in charge of the military?” Alicia had her eyebrows sharply raised.

“They have an army–to take out all the Killjoys in the Zones. It was all part of the Director’s plans. He’s been brainwashed to fulfill whatever that entailed and he fought against us,” Frank answered.

Alicia stared in shock for a few seconds. Then she turned to Mikey. “Have you seen him since–”

“Yeah,” Mikey said as he stared at the floor. “He fought me and tried to kill me.”

Frank and I looked between each other in guilt.

“There’s got to be a way to make him go back to normal, though, right?” Alicia asked as she darted her eyes between all of us.

Ray sighed as he looked down. “We’re still working on that. For now, we have to hide from him, though. He’s out to get rid of us because we’re Killjoys. And we’ve already had a few hostile warnings from him.”

“So what are you doing now?”

Frank inhaled deeply. “Just trying to make it alive through one more day.”

“And you–Leya, right?” Alicia said to me. I quickly nodded my head. “What are you still doing here?”

It wasn’t worded in a rude or accusatory way, she looked concerned when she asked that. “I can’t stay home. My parents are already being watched by BL/ind. So I’m here and I’m going to try and get the real Gerard back, too.”

Alicia gave me a gentle smile. “Well, I’m glad you are here. You know she was the one who found me?” Alicia asked Mikey as she turned to him. “This girl is incredible, Mikey.”

“Yeah. I know she is,” Mikey said as he looked at me with a warm smile.

I ducked my head, feeling too bashful to look him in the eye.

  
  


Shortly after we all decided to take a rest. Alicia, especially, who was still looking a bit pale and like she hadn’t had a good sleep in a year. She probably hadn’t.

After I gave her some of my clothes to sleep in, she and Mikey went to the bedroom, after the rest of us insisted. We were fine with trying to make some kind of sleeping space in the rest of the studio. Thanks to over a year of wandering the Zones and having to improvise a “bed” in the middle of the desert, hardwood floor wasn’t such a pain to sleep on for me. And fortunately, we had brought blankets and pillows from my house, so it was a lot better than places where I’ve had to sleep in the Zones.

As Frank and Ray got started on setting up the makeshift beds in the small office-sized room of the apartment, I picked up some of my clothes so I could change in the bathroom. It was nice to be back in sweatpants and a t-shirt after having done everything today in a skirt and an uncomfortable dress shirt.

At the same moment that I walked out of the bathroom into the main room, Mikey had just walked out of the bedroom, too. He noticed me and smiled. I gave him a small grin in return.

“It was all your idea, wasn’t it? To get Alicia?” he asked as he walked up to me.

I nodded as I shrugged a shoulder.

“Thank you,” he said as he launched forward to give me a tight hug. I was surprised at first, but then I brought my arms around his back. It was the first time we had hugged since I kissed him.

“It was nothing,” I said once more. I didn’t know how else to respond to that.

“No, it wasn’t. It was everything,” Mikey said as he moved back to look me in the eye. “I can’t even begin…”

“You don’t have to,” I interrupted. “And I had Frank to help me. So you better thank him, too. I almost got him killed doing this.”

“Of course,” Mikey nodded, then a grin curled up at the corner of his mouth. He exhaled softly now. “But really, you are incredible. I hope you know that.”

I breathed out a laugh. “I don’t agree with that, but thanks.” I looked over to the bedroom door, that was open just a crack. “Alicia seems incredible. To survive all of that. And all those tattoos. And she’s really pretty.”

I briefly closed my eyes as I felt embarrassed for all my rambling. But Mikey didn’t seem to think it was annoying or embarrassing. He just gave me a smug grin.

“Well, I did say that you two have a lot in common,” he replied as he crossed his arms.

I didn’t know how to respond to that. “Well, you should get back to her. Three years is a lot of time to make up for.”

“Yeah, it is.” Mikey smiled at me. “Thank you, again.”

I nodded, and then we both went our separate ways.

  
  


  
  


“So what’s the plan now?” Ray asked as we laid around on our makeshift beds in the small office-sized room in the studio.

“We have to meet Rina at the Research facility tomorrow. 6 o'clock sharp. She hates it when I’m late,” Frank answered as he laid on his stomach, his face resting on his hands.

“What exactly are you going to do at the research facility?” I asked while I laid with my arms crossed under my head.

Frank turned to me. “Find out what happened to Gerard.”

“Are you sure we should be doing that when he’s already tracking us, possibly through Rina, and with the added bonus of you and Leya breaking Alicia out of prison today?” Ray grumbled.

Frank groaned. “I already told her I’d meet her. And if Gerard is really closing in on us, the sooner we do this, the better.”

I nodded in understanding. “Who’s going with you?”

“Let Mikey stay with Alicia,” Ray suggested. Those two need the time alone, to cope, to rehabilitate–“

"To catch up on three years’ worth of frustration,” Frank smirked.

Ray frowned at him. “Don’t be so crude. Especially when Leya’s here.”

Frank giggled. “You know you were thinking that, too. I mean, if you got to see Christa now and had an apartment to yourselves, what would you do?”

Ray frowned. “Well, that’s none of your business.”

“Who’s Christa?” I asked.

Ray looked at me as his eyes softened. “My wife.”

“So you’re all married?” I asked.

Frank and Ray nodded. “Yep.”

“Hmm… Umm–” I bit my lip, wondering how to phrase my next question.

“Where are they?” Frank asked for me. He looked down briefly. “They’re safe. Far away. But safe.”

I blinked in realization. “Alicia was supposed to be with them, right?”

Ray nodded. “Alicia was different from the others. She would stick by Mikey until the end of the world. She would have fought with us. That girl is tough. Lindsey was actually the same, but she and Gerard have a daughter. So they put their daughter’s safety aboveeverything else. Otherwise, Lindsey would have been duking it out with Dracs just like us.”

“And your wives?” I asked.

Frank looked down. “Jamia was pregnant when we left.”

My eyes widened at this. “Oh…” Then an even bigger realization came to me. Oh! Frank probably has a kid! Who he has never met! Oh no… Oh god, how sad…

Frank wistfully sighed as he turned over and laid on his back. “They should be two years old now.”

“They?” I asked.

“She was going to have twins,” Frank remarked with a wide grin. “Or, she _had_ twins–if everything went right.”

I nodded my head, then turned to Ray. “What about your wife?”

“Christa… she wasn’t cut out for this dangerous life,” Ray told me. “She’s a strong woman, but all this violence, I don’t think she would have been able to handle it. So I knew in the end, it would be better for her to leave. We always promised we’d go back and meet all of them once we got all our friends out of Battery City. We would have gone back after rescuing Grace. And after visiting you again.”

I smiled at the corner of my mouth. That optimistic time feels so far away now. And yet it was only about five months ago.

“Then let’s go, after all of this is over. I want to meet them,” I said with a smile. “All of the ladies who put up with your shit long enough to marry you,” I joked.

Frank and Ray laughed. Shortly after this, we all fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

It was still dark out when Ray, Frank and I got to the research facility. My eye bags felt like they might drag to the floor. Frank was irritable and smoking a cigarette to help him wake up. Ray looked like he was going to fall asleep any moment, his lids dropping every now and then.

It was now 6:08am and Rina still had yet to show up.

“I thought you said she liked being on time,” Ray muttered.

Frank breathed out a tendril of smoke. “Well she chewed me out for being five minutes late to a date. Well, technically not a date, but–she always made a big deal about being on time to things. This isn’t like her…”

I crossed my arms. Even though I was wearing a jacket, my limbs were shaking. It wasn’t really cold, so I blamed it on my tired muscles.

“You don’t think… someone was following her, too?” Ray cautiously asked.

Frank shortly glanced at him while he held his cigarette away from his side. “Maybe.”

I sat against the hood of our stolen gray car until I heard a door open from behind us. We were parked just outside the building, but no other cars were here.

Frank, Ray and I turned around to see a woman come out. She had dark hair pinned up into a casual bun and she was wearing jeans and a tan knitted sweater.

“Rina?” Frank breathed out.

She skipped over to us while darting her eyes to the right and left.

“What are you guys doing here?” she asked. She sounded angry and her face was screwed up into a frown concentrated at the bridge of her nose.

“Uh–” Frank started.

She huffed out and interrupted, “Nevermind. Get inside. Quick.”

Ray, Frank, and I looked between each other and quickly followed Rina, who flitted back into the door she emerged from.

Once we were all inside the building, Rina eyed us all as she crossed her arms. “You’re very sloppy,” she directed to Frank.

He creased his brow. “I got here on time.”

“That’s not what I mean–they’re onto us. Somehow, someone figured out you were contacting me. I’ve been getting followed to and from work the past two days.”

Frank looked down. “I know.”

Rina blinked. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“We barely realized it day before yesterday–would have called you, but we didn’t want to chance something like phone wire tapping,” he said as he rubbed at his neck.

Rina sighed as she looked down. “Well, for now they don’t know anything for sure. But we better do this quickly. The more time we spend standing around, the more we risk getting caught being here when we’re not supposed to be.”

Rina moved her eyes onto me and Ray, as if we had suddenly appeared out of thin air.

“You must be Frank’s friends?” she asked.

Ray moved forward and extended his hand. “Yeah. I don’t think we’ve met properly before. I’m Ray.”

After they shook hands, I moved forward too. “And I’m Leya.”

As I shook Rina’s hand, her eyes narrowed. “Hey, I recognize you. You were the girl that came in for the internship application–” she shot a narrowed glance to Frank. “I should have known…”

Frank put his hands behind his back and sheepishly grinned. “Hey, Leya was the key diversion for that operation. Don’t get mad at her. It’s not like we did anything to harm you personally.”

Rina looked over me again. “So you’re in on what these kooks are trying to do?”

Frank and Ray started to protest, but I laughed. “Yeah. For better or worse.”

Rina nodded. Then she turned back to Frank. “Come on. And put out that damn cigarette.”

Frank frowned and dropped his cigarette to the floor with a look like it pained his very soul as he stuck the butt of it against the heel of his shoe.

As Rina led us up to the third floor, she gave us a tiny lecture on what we were about to do. “…so once I got around to accessing the executive file library, I pinpointed the drive that would contain the information you’re looking for. The only problem is that you can only access it from one computer in this building. In the psych research ward.”

“And you can get in?” Frank asked.

“Of course,” Rina smirked as she swiped her bangs with a flick of her head. “I made sure to collect all the access cards for this building before I resigned from my physics research.”

Ray rose his eyebrows, impressed.

Frank breathed out a laugh. “So why didn’t you meet us on time? What–were you sleeping here?”

Rina briefly looked down then stared at Frank. “I couldn’t go back home, and risk the suits following me here. So I came here and sent a decoy to my house. So yes, I did sleep here.”

Ray sputtered. “A decoy?”

Rina nodded. “You know you can hire androids to be personal assistants? Even for just one day?”

Frank and Ray creased their brows.

“Well, I just hired an android that looks like me to drive my car and stay at my house for 24 hours.”

Frank’s eyes widened and he whistled. “You can just do that? And I thought only the wealthiest people could afford androids. Aren’t they like… super rare?”

Rina smirked. “When you’ve been working at BLI as a receptionist as long as I have, you gain a lot of connections.”

Frank rose his eyebrows at this. “You’re really committed to helping us, aren’t you?”

Rina gave him a dark look. “Which is why I’m hoping you make this all worthwhile.”

Frank ducked his head as he followed along.

Soon, we got into a large empty room full of computers, screens, and whiteboards. A lot of electronic machines that were hooked up and somehow related to research, too.

I was only familiar with biology and chemistry types of research. All this psychology stuff seemed straight out of a sci-fi movie to me.

Rina logged onto the main computer, which was a large, white desktop. She did a lot of typing, opening up files on the thin holographic screen.

“I’m looking to see which experiments were being conducted at the time that you suggested–early to late November and December,” Rina narrated to Frank and Ray, who were leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen, although it was big enough for all of us to see from a few feet away.

She clicked onto protected folders and looked up the details on each one. Then she swiped her fingers over the touchpad to click onto a folder titled “Project XI.”

“This is the only project that isn’t mentioned in any of the official reports to the research initiative. I found that odd, considering all of the psych experiments were at the forefront of the company’s interests,” Rina continued.

She  double clicked onto it and a blinking message came up.

“It’s encrypted,” Rina remarked as she turned between Frank and Ray.

“Can you un-encrypt it?” Frank asked.

“Yes, I can _decrypt_ it,“ Rina answered. Although she had kept a steady gaze, I swore I could see her trying hard not to roll her eyes. "It’s just going to take a while.”

It took Rina two full minutes to decrypt the folder while Ray, Frank and I awkwardly paced in this small space. I kept wondering why this place was so empty–or if it wasn’t empty at all–but then, there were no other cars parked out there besides us.

"Here it is,” Rina announced. Ray, Frank and I scrambled up to her side to look at the data, which was really just a list of files.

Rina bent her eyebrows. “That’s strange.”

“What?” Frank asked as he looked between the computer screen and Rina, who was biting her lower lip.

“There’s data here and spreadsheets, but the only other file here is a video.” She clicked onto the small icon and a video player popped up onto the screen and turned black. In a second, it started playing, a slide show type thing. Then the ever-familiar grinning face of the former Director popped up on screen.

“To access each part of the report, simply click next to navigate through the chapters. Creating a better world, with Better Living Industries.”

“It’s her research report,” Rina remarked as the video started to play.

“Abstract: In our attempts to cultivate the perfect soldier, we have conducted a series of experiments and tests with the Android initiative, and later experimentation with synthetic and natural neurotransmitters related to the endocrine system. It was found through the examination of hormonal contraceptive capsules that a newly discovered chemical compound–now classified as Mem-X–was a substance that managed to alter emotional memory. This chemical was isolated and synthesized into a new neurotransmitter with its own reactive synapse to circulate it through the test subjects’ brain and endocrine system. After the operation and additional examination, our test subject was shown to have proved our attempts a success: emotion and memory are isolated from one another, making logic the foremost motivator in the test subject’s actions.”

“What the hell does all that mean?” Frank remarked. I was wondering the same thing.

“This is just the abstract, it’s an introduction,” Rina explained. “The next section should explain everything.”

“Early experiments and trials on crafting the perfect soldier were done through the innovation of Androids–the synthesis of a human and a robot. The goal was to have a soldier that was not hindered by emotions, including fear, anxiety, guilt, or compassion–but with the strength, agility, reflexes and problem-solving skills of a human.The results were promising, the foremost of these being Korse, which we made the leader of SCARECROW forces. But Korse was flawed. Simply fusing the human and robot attributes did not result in an equal balance of the two. Though Korse was not handicapped by fear or compassion, he was taken over by one emotion: hatred. His hatred overrode his orders and caused him to make moves contrary to this organization’s goals. Moves that would harm the company in the end. The other androids we tested on expressed similar results, one facet of emotion overriding their programming. As a result, the Android Initiative was dropped and the remaining products were sold to other organizations that would make better use of them.

"After several successful experiments on human memory, I revisited research from my college years, and discovered a breakthrough. We had become successful at isolating and removing emotion. Pharmaceuticals, electro-shock therapy, neurotransmitter stimulation, and even destruction of brain cells were all avenues that we took to achieve this. But there was one flaw. If we were to create a perfect soldier through the simple act of altering emotional memory, it had to be strong, but there was no telling if a lobotomy itself would be effective. The BLI pills were not enough on their own. While it makes for a model citizen, it does not make for a model soldier. The pills suppress aggression, drive, and passion–all of which are needed in a soldier. If there was a way to keep emotion and memory separate, but still intact, we were going to find it. Keep the emotion, remove it from memory. Keep memories, but remove it from emotion.

"There was already a substance that existed that did just so. Contraceptive pills. The idea was to create a neurotransmitter that would only target estrogen through the blood that flowed through the brain. The role of contraceptive pills is to inhibit the release of hormones in a female reproductive system–estrogen. Studies found that women who were on the pill vs. those who weren’t expressed a drastic deficit in emotional memory, closer to that of males. But these women still had less testosterone in their bloodstream than a typical male. So there was something else going on, a chemical compound that we discovered through months of testing and identification. After isolating the compound (named Mem-X for its function), we needed to test its efficacy on emotional memory on a male, to further be tested as a means to cultivating the perfect soldier. The ideal candidates for our experimental purposes were Killjoys. They were evasive, strong, quick, clever, and innovative. Most importantly, they were disposable, so ethical issues disappeared.

"A perfect soldier is not one who follows orders blindly. A perfect soldier can improvise, can tap into the emotions and feelings of others, and make quick diplomatic decisions for the greater good. A perfect soldier is not a robot, but a rational being who can still possess empathy. This is why the Androids failed. It is the human aspect that is required to become a perfect soldier, not the robot. These discrepancies are reconciled by the prevention of processing emotional memory. It allows the soldier to remain clear-headed in a time of crisis or moral conflict.”

“Can we just hurry this up? What the fuck did she do?” Frank growled.

Rina raised her eyebrow at him. “You really don’t want to know the complete reasoning behind her experiments?”

“I want to know exactly what the fuck she did more than I want to know why she did it!” Frank snapped.

Rina groaned. “Quite the scholar, you are…” She clicked to the next video section.

“Procedure: Mem-X was implanted into the subject’s brain in the medial-temporal lobe via a special device masked as a ray gun. It sent an electrical current to that area of his brain and connected like a magnet. The components all gathered to form a base in the cortex. We then injected the test subject with small levels of estrogen, which the neurotransmitter would attach to and then become activated, which would lead to a chain reaction as it circulated through the blood-brain barrier, through the endocrine system and back again. Next, the subject was administered Mem-X in regular intervals over the course of eight weeks.”

The video switched to what looked like footage of surgery and it was definitely Gerard on the operating table. More footage was shown of him looking shaven on his head, and tubes attached to him, a completely blank stare in all of the shots.

“Blood was tested each day to study the level of estrogen versus testosterone. Regular interviews were conducted with the subject each day about his life, his history, and the people he was most familliar with. Instruments were attached to the subjects’ scalp to detect brain activity. We had prior footage of what the brain activity is supposed to show during an emotional response on a CAT scan versus what showed up after the experiments.”

There were visuals of spreadsheets and a brain diagram with color ink blot things, all explained with really scientific language that I couldn’t understand, until the end it was put into more normal terms.

“Conclusion: Project XI was a success. Test subject one showed a marked decrease in long term emotional memory, as well as a complete rejection of the storage of new emotional information. Working memory has also increased in efficiency, which is a new study to explore. As we collect more Killjoys, the same operation will be performed on them, and hopes of a repeat success are high. Similar experiments are being conducted on the military students of SCARECROW Academy, referred to in Project XII. We have begun to administer the pills once a week in small dosages, however it is being counteracted upon with the high concentration of testosterone and Acetylcholine in the supplements, which they are required to take in conjunction with their physical training. Therefore, I have revised my plans to wait until the graduation of the elite class before they are given Mem-X, so they no longer need the supplements. Now that it has been proven to have worked, the only thing left to do is to collect more data and keep up production.”

The video ended and we all just kind of stared at the screen for a few seconds.

I don’t think Frank needed to ask Rina to explain this in English.

“So… Gerard has all his memories intact, he’s just on birth control?” Ray asked with a sharply raised eyebrow.

“It’s not birth control,” Rina muttered. “It’s just the active chemical in birth control that suppresses emotional memory. And it’s replenished without having to take more because as long as his body keeps pumping blood, the hormones reactivate the implanted synapse, so it’s a cycle.”

“So how do we reverse it?” Frank asked.

Rina glared at him. “Frank, you can’t reverse this.”

“Didn’t she talk about something counteracting with testosterone?” Frank argued.

“The drug is already in his bloodstream. Do you know the detox rate of this kind of thing?” Rina rolled her eyes. “Well, of course you don’t…”

“So you’re saying there’s nothing we can do?” Frank asked.

Rina sighed. “Unless you can find a way to get it out of his bloodstream and wait out a year or two or more, then no. There’s nothing you can do.”

“She said as long as the drug was in production, though,” I blurted out. “What if we stopped production?”

“And how do you propose we do that? Gerard’s in control of this city, and he’s brainwashed, and he’s stuck on those pills,” Frank muttered. “He won’t care about you anymore, and even if he did, he’s more loyal to the government and its mission now.”

“Not to mention the millions of pills that are already available for consumption. Even if you stopped production for good, the supply would last at least half a decade,” Rina sighed.

“What the hell was wrong with this lady? To try and put everybody on pills?” Ray exclaimed with a shake of his head.

“She was trying to create a perfect, peaceful world,” Rina answered.

Frank narrowed his eyes at her. She caught the look and blinked, “Look, I know she was a tyrannic bitch and she killed people and ruined lives–including mine–but at the root of all her actions, this is what she wanted. Peace. The Project XI was only started after the rebellion.”

“Yeah, but what about before that, huh?” Frank barked. “When anyone who didn’t want to take pills or partake in the nearly-fascist regime was either arrested or banished?”

“She wanted perfection. People like you were a threat,” Rina answered.

Frank had balled up his fists now and grabbed at Rina’s collar. “Are you sure you’re even on our side right now? How can we be sure you’re not with BLI still?”

“I _am_ on your side!” Rina shouted back as she gripped Frank’s wrists.

“Frank, stop it!” Ray shouted as he grabbed at his shoulders to pull him off of Rina.

“Would I be helping you right now if I was still loyal to BLI?!” Rina shouted as she pulled herself together. “Would I have helped you at all? You think just because you’re a Killjoy that you’ve got it worse than people like me, who have to pretend to fit into the system so that we don’t get arrested or killed ourselves. Well, here’s a news flash: you don’t! I got my head cut open because I went against the company, because I helped you–just like I’m helping you now!–and who knows if the Director put the same thing in my brain as she did to your friend? And even though I knew the risk in helping you again, I came here anyway! Now do you still think I’m a BLI loyalist?”

We all quieted down now as Rina huffed out, glaring at Frank still.

“Sorry,” Frank muttered as he looked down.

Rina closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “I’m sorry about what happened to your friend. I’ve done all I can to help, but it seems like there’s nothing we can do, unless we miraculously destroy all the pills in the world and wait until the transplanted neurotransmitters deplete in his brain and the rest of the chemicals in his bloodstream detoxify, which could take years. Then there’s the added bonus of re-brainwashing him and everyone else in this city into seeing the bad of SCARECROW and Better Living Industries. It would take years, Frank. I’m not even sure this planet even has years left with all the pollution and radiation raining down on us everyday! Things that the research board should have been focusing on, but weren’t in exchange for all this stupid fucking neuro-pharmaceutical bullshit!”

We all stared at her, speechless. She has definitely had it rough. Just as rough if nor more than any Killjoy.

“Well, there’s your research files,” she sighed.

Frank nodded and looked down. “Thank you Rina. For everything. I know you’ve sacrificed so much, and just to help me and–”

“Stop,” Rina interrupted with a palm raised up. “I don’t need you to thank me, Frank. This was all my own choice.”

Frank pursed his lips and smiled at her. “Thank you, anyway. You have no idea… how much I owe to you.”

Rina smirked. “I owe a lot to you, too, you know. You showed me the truth. Even before my amnesia. It’s important to fight back, and you’re the prime example of why.”

Ray cleared his throat. “I hate to ruin the moment, but should we do something about this information? I feel like… well… what if there was a way we could get this out to the public?”

I looked over at Ray. “And then what?”

“Well, here’s the Director’s main plan: conducting experiments on citizens and students without their consent? All the failed experiments on Killjoys? The Androids? All of these secrets she’s been keeping–it’s all here!” Ray exclaimed. “We need to share this with everyone!”

Rina put a hand to her chin. “That is one way of solving things… not everyone in this city is on pills. At least, not yet. A major exposure like this… it could put a dent in Gerard’s plans. People might stop supporting, might start questioning… Especially with the SCARECROW Academy students, already being corralled into a military force without their consent.”

“Can you download this or keep it somewhere… like a portable disk?” I asked.

Rina smiled at me and reached into her sweater pocket. “I always have a flash drive on me.”

She inserted the flash drive into the computer and started to transfer the folder of files onto it. And then we heard something.

“What was that?” I asked.

Frank moved up to the window of the door. “Shit… we got company.”

“Company?” Ray asked. “SCARECROW?”

“From the looks of it, it’s those SCARECROW Academy students,” Frank informed us.

I frantically looked back to Rina, who had the file still transferring. There were two minutes left to completely transfer the files. She glanced up between Frank and the computer.

“If they find out what we’re doing in here, we’ll all get arrested won’t we?” I asked as I felt my heart start beating faster. Rina had tightened her jaw and Ray and Frank looked anxious as well.

“We’ll lead them away,” Frank announced as he took his ray gun out. “Hopefully if we draw them out, you two can finish getting that file and get out of here.”

“What about you?” I asked.

Frank growled out, “Don’t worry about me! Just make sure you and Rina get out of here safe!” Before I could say anything, he opened the door and burst out. Ray ran out right after him.

“Shit!” I whispered out. Then I looked to Rina, who had been studying the computer.

“Come on…” she groaned out as she saw that 92% of the files had transferred.

I heard a loud commotion right outside the door. It sounded like running.

Rina grabbed my shoulders and then ducked the both of us down as close as we could to the desk. She looked scared, but she was still holding onto me tight.

*PLINK*

“The files are done transferring,” she whispered to me. She cautiously stood up, then looked over to the door. We couldn’t hear anymore footsteps. She closed all the files on the computer, then ejected the flash drive and hooked it onto a bracelet she was wearing. She finally shut down the computer and tugged at my wrist.

“Come on, we’ll get out through a shortcut,” she whispered out to me as she walked near the door.

We were careful around each corner that we turned, and she led me out through a locked hallway, which she accessed with a key. The hallway was white and empty except for a door at the end, which opened up onto the parking lot.

Rina looked right and left, then tugged at my arm. “COme on–let’s get to the metro. It’s just a short walk, but there don’t seem to be any guards out here, so we might be able to make it.”

“Wait… we can’t just leave!” I exclaimed as I stopped in my tracks.

“We have to!” Rina shouted as she pulled me again. For someone who wasn’t really a fighter, she had a painfully strong grip on my wrist.

“What about Frank and Ray?” I protested.

“They know what they’re doing!” Rina replied without turning to me.

“I’m not leaving them!” I yelled as I dug my heels into the ground, making Rina almost stumble over her own feet. Her eyes darkened as she glared at me.

“If you go back there, and you get arrested–we’ll all be finished!” Rina yelled. “Think about it–I’m already being followed, and there’s no doubt camera surveillance captured us–you have a chance to escape. Take it!”

“And just leave Frank and Ray to the wolves? No!” I protested.

“Take it from someone who’s spent years protecting herself from the system,” she solemnly told me. “Save yourself first.”

I scoffed. “What kind of an attitude is that?”

“It’s the attitude that’s going to keep you alive and out of trouble.” Rina pulled at me again, her long nails digging into my wrist.

I had no choice but to follow along with her, because I knew she was right–if I went back in there, there was the chance I could get arrested. And if I got away, then I would at least have the chance to fix things with Rina and Mikey’s help.

We reached the metro station, and Rina pushed me into the corner just at the end of the staircase.

“Take this with you.” She shoved the flash drive into my hand. “I’m not safe enough to guard this.”

Rina looked down, looking a bit lost in her own troubled thoughts. Then she picked her head back up and gave me an intense stare. “Now get to safety and hold onto this like it were your own life–better yet, if it were your friend’s life!”

“How do I contact you?” I asked.

“Don’t,” she replied.

I creased my brow. “So you’re just going to leave and walk away from this?”

“For the greater good, I have to protect myself, Leya,” Rina told me. “The less contact we have, the better, for all of us. You’ll be fine. You’re a good girl. And Frank is a survivor. Good luck with everything.”

“W-wait!” I stuttered out. But she left running into a corridor for the 7 train. I would run after her, but I also have to think about Frank and Ray. She’s right… if I’m the only person holding this evidence in my hand, this is the truth. And right now, it’s the only weapon we have against BLI. I need to keep it safe.

With a heavy heart, I turned into the corridor towards the Central line.

Frank, Ray… please stay alive.


	9. Chapter 9

I got back to Mikey’s studio just under thirty minutes.

I was still holding the flash drive stick in my hand as I slammed the front door shut and leaned my head back against it, feeling the sweat on the back of my neck for the first time since I escaped the research facility.

“Back already?” Mikey called out as he stepped into the main room. He had a smile on his mouth that quickly dropped as his eyebrows bunched together at the center.

I put a palm up to my face and sighed. Mikey rushed over to me while Alicia tentatively stepped out from the bedroom after him.

“Leya, what happened?” Mikey asked again, his hazel eyes narrowed in concern.

“Frank and Ray―” I stuttered out.

“Are you okay?” Mikey interrupted with a frown.

I quickly nodded my head. “I’m fine, but Ray and Frank, they might be―” I swallowed as I stuck to the door. It was like the only thing keeping me grounded, literally. “SCARECROW was there. Me and Rina got out while Ray and Frank distracted them and I don’t know what to do―and I wanted to go back but I wouldn’t know what to do there either and I have to keep this flash drive safe and―”

“Hey, just breathe…” Mikey told me as he came closer, looking me in the eye.

I dropped my face into my hands. “I left them behind!”

“Ray and Frank will be okay,” Mikey said as he put a hand on my shoulder, then gently squeezed it.

I tried to breathe, but it was more of a gasp of air as I looked back at Mikey. “I could have done something to help! And now… they could be dead! Or in prison! Or―”

“You don’t know that,” Mikey interrupted. “And it’s a good thing you got back safely.”

I gave him a look of grief as I sighed. I shook my head. “What if that was the last time―”

“Leya, calm down,” Mikey said as he grasped the sides of my face and stared at me from just inches away.

Oh, fuck. Even though we’d worked out the relationship between us, that didn’t mean I still didn’t get overwhelmed by how damn pretty he was.

I stared up at him, unable to say anything more.

“I can make you some tea, if you’d like,” Alicia offered from a few feet away.

I turned my head to face her. She smiled at me, looking radiant and well-rested, color back in her cheeks and her hair washed, combed and straightened. I had been letting her borrow my clothes, so she was wearing one of my old t-shirts. But I’m way shorter than her, so she’s wearing Mikey’s jeans, revealing her bare hips since my shirt was also designed for a shorter torso.

“That would be nice,” I finally answer her.

“Okay,” Alicia replied, keeping a warm smile aimed at me. She has such strong facial bone structure and eyebrows, and these jewel-like eyes, and with her full, tall stature she can be intimidating. But when she smiled at me, I just felt so… comfortable. And when her face got soft like that, she was so beautiful. She’s beautiful regardless, but that extra touch of kindness had me almost weak in the knees.

Somehow, looking at Alicia got my mind off of everything else. I can’t even remember to feel anxious anymore.

She whisked away into the small kitchen, and Mikey moved and brought a hand over to my shoulder again. “Have some tea. Sit down. Everything’s going to be okay.”

I couldn’t say anything back. I was just processing being back in this studio, and being stuck between these two beautiful people. That was definitely an unconventional way to get me to calm down.

  
  


A few hours later, I was pacing the main room, making the wooden floor creak in the same rhythm with every four steps I took. I didn’t like not knowing what happened to Frank and Ray. And although Alicia and Mikey had both tried their best to keep me occupied all day, it was clear that they were also getting worried at this point. They kept giving each other these knowing, empathetic glances as they looked between me, then the door. It was such a parental thing to do, it made me _feel_ ten years younger than Mikey for once.

“Shouldn’t they have been here by now, if they were able to escape?” I asked for the fifth time as I brought a hand to my forehead.

Mikey was about to answer when I heard the door click. I whipped around and saw the handle turn. My breath hitched.

“Hey guys!” boomed out Frank’s voice as the door opened.

My mouth dropped as I gaped at the sight of Ray and Frank step through. They looked unharmed and cheerful.

Mikey smiled. “You guys made it!”

“Hey, Leya,” Frank told me with a smile as he casually strode into the living room.

“HEY?!” I snapped, clenching my fists as I stood still in the middle of the room.

Frank’s smiled faded. Ray made a grimace and stayed put near the door.

“I’ve been worried sick about you all day and you just waltz in and say ‘hey’?!” My voice rang throughout the walls.

“We’re okay,” Ray quickly told me with widened eyes.

“Yeah, I can see that!” I still shouted.

“What’s the matter? You thought something had happened to us?” Frank laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

I narrowed my eyes and then crossed my arms. “Go to hell, Frank.”

“Aw, come on…” He marched up to me and then wrapped his arms around my back. I kept still, my arms crossed as I frowned.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset―I’m glad you’re safe, though,” he told me.

I pushed away from him and glared. “Stop it. Stop…being like that! I thought you and Ray were arrested―or worse. I thought….”

“We’re fine,” Frank told me, in a gentler voice this time. “You and Rina got out okay?”

I sighed. “We got out fine. We didn’t run into any SCARECROW students.”

“I can’t believe you actually listened to me this time,” Frank laughed out.

“Well, I didn’t have much of a choice. Not after Rina ditched me and just left me with this,” I explained as I held out the flash drive.

“Rina’s gone?” Ray asked.

“Yeah,” I tersely replied. “And she said not to contact her. Nice girl, Frank. She’s really taking one for the team by saving herself.”

“Hey, don’t badmouth Rina. She really did take one for the team. And she got you to not act like a stubborn, reckless worrywart for once, so in my opinion, she’s a real champ.”

I scoffed. “Whatever.”

“So what happened at the research facility?” Mikey asked as he walked up to meet us all in the center of the room.

“Same ol, same ol,” Ray nonchalantly replied. “Got chased, shot some agents, escaped through the sewers and the metro system. Took us forever, so that we didn’t give them a lead to this place.”

“You guys are shooting agents?” Alicia asked with her arms crossed.

“No, they’re shooting students,” I muttered as I looked down to the floor. “Those were SCARECROW Academy students.”

Frank looked over at me with a guilty stare. “Leya, they were trying to kill us―”

“No, I know… It’s just, it’s fucked up,” I sighed as I shook my head.

“Anyway, we’re safe. No one followed us here, and we’ve got the flash drive,” Ray told Mikey.

“What’s in that flash drive?” Alicia asked from her spot at the wall.

Frank breathed in deeply. “Answers. And our last chance at putting up a fight against BLI.”

  
  


  
  


“There has to be a way to get this to the broadcast center,” I said after the five of us gathered at the small kitchen table to form a plan for what to do next. It was a small, round plastic structure, the white tabletop cold to the touch. There were only two chairs here, so we improvised with old crates and boxes Mikey had stored in his garage.

“And then what?” Mikey asked with bent eyebrows. “Show the video to the city―what’s that going to do?”

“It’s going to expose BLI for the unethical, manipulating liars they’ve always been,” Ray answered. “They’re experimenting on students without their consent. And there’s the truth about the corruption of the Android industry. And there’s the truth about what’s going on with Gerard. It all makes BLI look very bad to their consumers.”

Alicia nodded her head as she swallowed water from her glass. “Sounds great. When do we put out this video?”

Mikey turned to her and gave her a grieved stare. “You’re not getting involved in this.”

Alicia bent her eyebrows. “Mikey, I’ve been in prison for the last three years. I’m sick of being holed up and not able to do anything! I want to get back at BLI for what they did, not just to me, but to everyone.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to be involved.”

“No!” Frank protested. “You and Leya need to stay here, in case anything goes wrong with the plan. That way, you guys can still survive. Find a way out of this city.”

“Are you fucking serious?” I sneered with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah―this whole damsels-in-distress stay home attitude is pissing me off, too,” Alicia added. I met eyes with her and we shared a reverent look of solidarity.

Frank groaned. “It’s not because you’re girls! It’s because you two aren't―”

“I would backpedal my words if I were you, Frankie,” Alicia sneered as she gave him a cold stare. “'Cause this is one argument you are not going to win, and I’d hate for you to say something you’d only end up regretting.”

Frank swallowed and shut up. Wow.

Ray raised his hands up in a pacifying gesture. “Can we all just take a time out here?” He turned toward me and Alicia. “No one’s saying you guys shouldn’t be involved. You two are just as important as the rest of us.”

“Thank you, Ray,” I said with an approving tilt of my eyebrows.

He looked down at the table. “But… Frank has a point.”

I narrowed my eyes at this.

“Hear me out! This is a very risky thing we’re about to do!” he protested. “Not only will this give Gerard an exact pinpoint on our location, but getting out of the city center after that video comes out, giving him fair warning that we’re going to make a move―it’s going to be dangerous. We might not even be able to get out at all. So we’re going to need to have backup out here.”

“And what does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you’re not going,” Frank sharply told me as he crossed his hands on the table.

I glared at him.

“Don’t give me that look,” he muttered.

“Well, I have the flash drive, so unless you pry it out of my cold dead hands, I’m not giving it to you,” I said as I crossed my arms. “And you can’t carry out this plan without it.”

Frank gave me a flat look. “Where the hell is the flash drive, Leya?”

“Mmm, who knows?” I replied with a flick of my eyebrows.

Frank bolted out of his seat and approached me until he was hovering just above me, forcing me to look up at him to keep eye contact. “Where the fuck is it, Leya?”

“You’re not going to seriously search me, are you?” I scoffed as I stood up and backed away.

“Can we all just calm down?!” Mikey exclaimed from the other side of the table. “Frank! Back off.”

Frank shot a fierce look at Mikey, and then at me. “You’re so fucking annoying sometimes, you know that?”

“Right back at you,” I quipped as I crossed my arms.

Frank balled his fists. “Are you seriously not going to give us the flash drive?”

“Only if you let me go with you,” I answered.

Frank kept his jaw closed tight and eyed me up and down. I tensed my brow at this. Was he trying to seriously―

Before I knew what was happening, he had lunged forward and grasped my upper left arm and brought his other hand onto my opposite shoulder and pushed me against the wall. I gasped in shock as my back hit the wall.

“Frank!” I heard Ray, Mikey, and Alicia yell.

I tried to flex and push my way out of Frank’s hold, but his hands just tightened onto my arm and my collar bone. He was too strong for me. He wasn’t even making eye contact, and was looking down at my collar bone. He moved his hand from my clavicle and yanked at the cord around my neck, which pulled and rubbed at my skin. Then he unclasped the flash drive which I had hooked onto it, and which had been hidden under my shirt. Until now, anyway.

Frank finally let me go, leaving me to stumble against the wall.

“Ha!” he triumphantly yelled out as I rubbed at my neck, feeling irritated, raw skin.

“What the hell, Frank?” Ray growled.

I stared over at Frank, who gave me a completely unapologetic, smug look.

I stood up straight and walked out of the room.

I’m so angry.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by that move he pulled. Still, he’s so fucking stubborn about keeping me safe. There’s no guarantee I’ll be safe, even if I’m not involved in the plan! Can’t believe he went as far as to physically force the flash drive off of me. And yet… of course he would!

I could hear them all arguing in the kitchen, Frank defending himself, Alicia raising her voice, Mikey shouting at him, and Ray trying to calm everyone down.

How is it we were all fighting each other now?

  
  


  
  


That night, Alicia and I slept in the bedroom and the guys all slept in the other room. They figured it was best to separate me and Frank, since we had been so bitter and hadn’t spoken since the confrontation. It wasn’t the first time we had a fight, and I didn’t cry this time, but I’m still just so angry at him.

“You have to understand where Frank’s coming from. You have every right to be angry, but he has reason to be angry, too,” Alicia told me. “Even though he’s an asshole about it,” she muttered under her breath.

We were both lying in the bed next to each other, just a sheet covering us.

“Aren’t you mad, too?” I asked as I leaned an elbow onto my pillow. “They’re not going to let us go. And they’re going to do something stupid like get themselves killed.”

“You think you’d be able to prevent that by going?”

“I know I would!” I protested.

Alicia looked down and laughed. Then she sighed. “You want to protect them, right?”

I hastily nodded.

“Well, they want to protect you, too. And though I don’t agree with their methods, I’m not sure I can really argue.”

“Weren’t you just saying how pissed off you were back there? How can you change your mind?”

She gave me a soft look. “Because I love Mikey. And because I love him, I’m going to do what makes him happy. He already lost me once… And I think the possibility of that happening again, it would break him. So if it makes him feel better to think I’m safe at home, away from the action, then I’ll do it.”

I stared at her. I don’t agree with her decision, I can’t really argue against her reasons.

“They love you,” Alicia continued. “And they don’t want to lose you, either.”

“I don’t care,” I retorted. “I’m going to help them. They need it.”

Alicia giggled. “You know, you’re just as stubborn as Frank.”

I groaned at this. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that before.

“It’s a good thing, though,” Alicia continued. “You need that kind of fighting spirit, in the situation we’re in right now.”

“If only Frank could see that…” I grumbled.

“Like I said, he’s a stubborn one, too. And if he wants to protect you, he’ll probably do whatever it takes.”

I stared at Alicia. She was completely right. And it wasn’t news to me.

Since day one, Frank’s always been protecting me. Getting hurt so that I didn’t. Lashing out at me when I did something rash. Why does he care so much?

And yet, aren’t I doing the same thing now? And not just for Frank. For all of them.

  
  


In the morning, I woke up to the sounds of feet shuffling over wood and doors softly closing, and the faint murmur of Frank’s voice through the wall. I bolted up out of bed, careful not to wake Alicia, who was still curled on her side with her eyes closed.

I looked around the room in the early morning darkness, and realized that none of my clothes were here.

So I opened the door and crept out into the main room.

Just then, Mikey emerged from the other room, and was busy closing the door before he saw me.

His eyes shot wide as he saw me. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m coming with you,” I replied with an edge to my tone, to prove my seriousness.

“Oh boy…” Mikey sighed as he put his hands on his hips.

“I just… I need to get my clothes.”

“You know Frank’s not going to let you go, right? And… well, I’d prefer if you didn’t go.”

I tilted my head and gave Mikey a flat look. “Really, Mikey? You _know_ I can help. I mean, if I wasn’t there with you guys when we sacked BLI headquarters, you could be dead right now. But you’re not, because I was there to help.”

“I know,” Mikey told me with a solemn tense of his jaw. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you getting shot just to save me.”

I gave him a warm look. “Just give me a chance. You can’t protect me all the time. And it’s not always me who needs protecting, anyway.”

Mikey nodded.

Then the door opened again and Frank emerged into the main room. My chest started to burn just from one glance at him. I’m still mad.

Frank betrayed no such sentiment, at least, not visibly.

Mikey looked between me and Frank. He cleared his throat. “I’m gonna go say bye to Alicia.”

He left into the bedroom, leaving me and Frank alone in the main room.

Frank deeply inhaled and crossed his arms over his chest. He was wearing a leather jacket, and it squeaked at his elbows as he did so.

“Nice hair,” he told me.

I raised my hands to touch at my hair, just noticing the disarrayed bedhead that stuck up. I scrunched my mouth at this, then narrowed my eyes at Frank. He was smiling now, though it was small.

He looked down and cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry about using physical force to get the flash drive from you,” Frank said in a tone that sounded rehearsed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, but I just wanted the flash drive―and there was no other fucking way I was going to get it.”

I crossed my arms. “Thanks for your apology…”

Frank gave me a hard stare as walked up to me. Then he stuck out his arm with a closed fist. I tensed my brow at this, not sure what to do.

“You can come,” Frank finally said. He opened his fist and in the center of his palm was the flash drive.

My eyes widened and I looked up at him. “Frank…” I started.

“Just promise me one thing,” he interrupted as he curled his fingers back over the flash drive. “Anything, and I mean _anything_ happens, you will do your best to stay alive. You won’t sacrifice yourself for anybody, you won’t stay behind, you won’t try to be a hero and finish the job. You’ll just get out of there, and let me do whatever it is I have to do to keep you out of harm’s way without complaint. Can you do that?”

I bent my eyebrows at this. “Frank―”

“Leya, the only way I’m letting you come with us is if you answer yes. And you better mean it.” He stared at me and held out the flash drive once more.

I took a gulp as I looked him in the eye. “Yes.”

Frank pursed his lips and handed me the flash drive. “Get dressed, then.“

  
  


  
  


The plan was to get to the broadcast center through the sewer system. The building where all the television programs were shot and broadcast from was in District 6, right at the heart of Battery City. So if we went in a car, under heavy surveillance, we probably wouldn’t get within 300 ft of the building without getting Gerard’s attention.

So we went through dark tunnels, where the air was stuffy, hot, and moist. Ray had a map of the whole place, which he drew out the night before. Though, it was so dark in here, and the lights were so dim that having a map didn’t help much.

I had the flash drive back on my neck, where it laid right under the collar of my gray t-shirt, just next to the medallion Frank had given me.

We walked for what must have been an hour and a half, though it was quiet between all of us most of the time. Not necessarily awkward, but there was a stifling, foreboding sense in the air. We couldn’t fuck this up. This was our last chance at putting up a fight against BLI.

We came to a tunnel that had a white number “6” painted above the opening.

“This is the tunnel that’s going to take us to the city center,” Ray told me. I nodded in return.

We walked along for another five minutes until Mikey stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around.

"Do you hear that?” Mikey asked as he stared behind us. We followed his gaze, the tunnel that went on forever and fell into a dense, black hole. We all kept silent. Then what sounded like a rapping against metal echoed through the wide tunnel.

“Maybe it’s rats?” Frank half-joked.

Mikey turned back to him and whispered, “We’ve got to get out of here now. The only people left in these sewers are rebels and agents. And no rebel would be stupid enough to try and get to the city center―well, besides us.”

Frank nodded and we all picked up the pace, but kept our feet light as we trod along the corridor, which split up to a stream of sewer so that there were only two feet’s width of space on either side to walk along. At this point, all of us formed into a line, Frank at the front, me just behind him, then Mikey and Ray in that order.

I looked ahead and saw light filtered near the end of the tunnel.

“We’re almost there,” Frank told me without turning around. “We just have to reach the end, then turn around the bend, and there should be a passageway into the metro station.”

The tapping got louder and started to echo―either that, or there was more than one thing tapping. I turned around and met eyes with Mikey. He gave me a worried glance and swallowed.

“We have to run,” he urged us all.

Frank broke off into a jog and I followed as Mikey kept a guarded arm at my back. Ray took out his ray gun and kept his vision towards the direction whence we came.

We had just got to the end of the tunnel, and I could faintly hear train wheels and the whoosh of the train car. We were almost there.

Frank rounded the bend, then froze in his tracks. I bumped into his back, then Mikey braced his arms on my shoulders, and Ray stayed back a bit.

We had got to the metro station passageway, alright. But we were met with the enemy.

There was Gerard, under the bright light that filtered in from the vents above us. Dressed in his all black BLI uniform and with at least twenty armored SCARECROW Academy students behind him. All of them with guns bared at us.

I felt a shiver go down my spine. I looked back, and Ray was already turned around to go back the way we came. But he only took a few steps before he froze. Just a few yards beyond us were ten more SCARECROW Academy students. They must have been the ones responsible for those tapping noises.

"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” Frank groaned as he closed his eyes.

“Hey, guys,” Gerard cheerfully greeted. He had a grin that pushed his cheeks up into his face. Though not as vibrant as when he had his red hair, his eyes still managed to twinkle.

“Hi, Ray,” Gerard smiled as he tilted his head to exaggerate his attention. “You got the short fro again! Nice!”

Ray looked back at him with wide eyes, probably as this was the first time he’d seen Gerard in person since last November.

“How did you know we’d be here?” Ray asked, completely disregarding Gerard’s courtesy.

Gerard flicked an eyebrow, then smirked. “No hello from you either, I guess… Ahem, there were cameras at the research facility. I know you guys took something. And obviously if what you took was important enough to keep, you weren’t going to keep that information to yourselves. And that only meant that you’d want to expose something to the entire city. It’s what I would have done if I were in your shoes. And I know you wouldn’t have wanted to give yourselves away just getting to the broadcast center, so the sewers were a logical decision.”

Frank sardonically laughed. “You must feel so good about yourself, huh?”

“It was a nice try. It would have worked if I wasn’t the Director of BLI,” Gerard replied with an admiring look. “Now, you want to hand over what you got on your neck, Leya?”

I brought a hand up to the necklace with the flash drive on it.

“Back off, Gerard,” Frank warned as he edged closer to me.

“Always the protector, Frank. It’s really sweet. But as history has pointed out, every time you get in front of her, you get hurt.”

“Yeah, so what? You gonna shoot me?” Frank scoffed.

Gerard groaned. “Can we all just stop being so Scorsese serious right now? We’re all friends. Let’s just…talk.”

He looked at all of us individually and gave us an impish smile. It was so weird. Frank was right… this _was_ Gerard.

“Yeah, with all your new friends aiming lasers at us,” Ray muttered.

“Fine. Just give me the flash drive,” Gerard huffed out.

"Gerard, you’ve gotta snap out of this,” Mikey told him with a grave stare.

“I have an obligation to this city, Mikey. To this entire world. And I’m not going to let you four ruin that by causing anarchy.”

Frank made a groan that sounded like he was retching. “Fuck off, Gee! Just a few months ago, you were the _leader_ of anarchy in the desert.”

“Look, I’m not gonna rehash this! Just…hand over the flash drive, get out of Battery City, and then we’ll be cool. What do you guys say?”

“Even if we believed that, we wouldn’t do it,” Ray said with his arms crossed.

Gerard softly laughed, then made eye contact with me. “Leya, since you’re usually more receptive to negotiation, I’m going to give you an option. How would you like to become a member of my elite force? It’ll be like old times, working together, fighting together, making genius plans… So what do you say?”

“How about a huge, fat NEVER,” I scoffed. “I will never work for SCARECROW and I certainly won’t support your brainwashed madness.”

“Well, don’t say I never gave you a second chance,” Gerard told me with an annoyed raise of his eyebrows.

“The normal you would be sick at hearing yourself. You sound just like Korse!” I snapped. “Remember? The android who killed all my friends, took Grace, killed those people at Sweetwater, the android I momentarily died over to protect you? Do you remember how he offered me a deal exactly like this? Remember how badly you didn’t want me to make the deal? How you had warned me against it before? Warned me against all of this before. And look at you―now you’re the one doing it.”

He gave me a steely gaze. “I remember. But… I just can’t seem to care.” He broke into a laugh.

“Gerard, we know about the experiments done on you!” Ray shouted. “This is all just one huge side effect.”

“Yeah, I got help. Which you all need. Trust me, having control over emotions has been a lifesaver for me. Everything is so much clearer, now that I’m not clouded by all those ridiculous ideals and all that fucking EMO just eating away at me all the time. Frank, you could really benefit from this. It’s even better than all those pills we used to take.”

“How fucking dare you?” Frank sneered. “You know this is all just implanted in your brain, right? And when this thing runs its course―because trust me, I’m getting you off of those chemicals if it’s the last thing I do―you’re going to feel terrible about all this. I know you… the guilt, it’s going to eat away at your soul, and you’re not going to be able to handle it. I’m scared for what it’s going to do to you.”

Frank was looking at him with an intense, though soft, look.

“All the more reason to make sure that never happens, am I right?” Gerard remarked with a purse of his lips.

“You can stop it now. It doesn’t have to go that far. We can help you,” Frank persisted.

“See, Frank… I don’t really have that much faith in you. I mean, you out of all people, you’re at the breaking point. You’ve had to deal with so much grief. If you just had the same thing done to you―all your suffering, all the bad memories―all the pain would stop. Just like that!” Gerard snapped his fingers together. “I think one day you’re all going to be begging to join this squad. You’ll be begging to have the same procedure done on you. And you know what? I’m just going to skip all of that and set you all up for an appointment, anyway. Then we can all be best friends again.”

“Can you hear yourself?” Mikey exclaimed. “You sound like a fucking psycho.”

“Mikey, I’m the most clearheaded I’ve ever been!” Gerard argued. He stepped closer. “Please―if you all just stopped fighting me, then we could all reign over Battery City as a team.”

“We don’t give a shit about Battery City―we just want you back!” Frank shouted.

Gerard narrowed his eyes. “Well, if you’re not going to join me, then I’ll have to kill you. And I don’t want to kill you, but it’s kind of my job. Unless you, um, change your minds about this whole Killjoy business.”

Ray grunted. “We’re the Fabulous Killjoys, remember, Gee? We’re Killjoys til the end, and we’ll always stand up for other Killjoys that are threatened by the system. I.E., you.”

Gerard tilted his head and nodded. “Alright. Arrest them. And get me that flash drive!”

The students started forward with their guns bared. The guys all took out their guns. I was about to take mine out, too, when Frank brought an arm around my front and pushed me behind him.

“Leya, you still don’t know how to swim?” he asked me as he glanced toward the stream just to our right.

“What?” I asked. Then I blinked in realization of what he was really saying. I curled a hand around his wrist. “Frank, no―”

“Be brave and hold your breath,” Frank said before he whipped around and shook out of my grip. I reached out an arm to grab at him again, but he was too quick. He pushed me by my shoulders and I fell back.

“No!” I cried out as I dropped toward the sewer stream.

Frank did this to save me. No… What did we say about sticking together! This asshole saved me again! Damn it, why couldn’t he and the others at least have jumped after me?!

My vision got obscured as I splashed into dark, cold sewer water. It plugged up my nose and my mouth and eyes and I flailed my arms as I tried to get back to the surface. The current pushed me down so quick, I couldn’t fight against it or swim with it. I got dragged away, quicker and quicker, down and down, and I tried to reach out for anything, but failed. I tried to push myself up, but I’m not even sure I was doing this right―I still don’t know how to swim!

Just as my lungs really started to burn from holding my breath for so long, I got knocked against the stone wall―oh… my back―and the stream had slowed down enough that I could grab onto a steel ladder rung.

I pulled my bruised and banged up body out of the stream, and flopped stomach-first onto the dark concrete of the tunnel floor. I was soaking, smelly, and I hurt everywhere. I was trembling from the cold, from the shock, from the anxiety.

I didn’t even have it in me to cry. I just laid on the ground, feeling everything that hurt. Not just physically. Though my chest ached with sorrow.

I had failed them.

And AGAIN, I was the one who got protected.


	10. Chapter 10

After a few minutes, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and got to my feet. Though all my limbs ached and my back ached, and my soggy, wet clothing made it very uncomfortable to move, I couldn’t just lie there for the rest of my life. I had to move. That’s what Frank saved me for.

Lanterns hung every fifty feet or so, so while it wasn’t completely dark, there was still a lot left in shadow. Down here, everything echoed, even when I swallowed. My footsteps made more echoes. This place was scary enough on its own. Now that I’m completely alone and completely lost, I can feel my skin crawl and my heart thud against against my ribcage.

I heard a big sound echo, like something had hit the wall. I whipped around and focused my eyes to see something clambering up from the sewer stream.

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered out. Sewer monster or agent or rebel, this wasn’t going to be good news.

I reached to the side of my pants, and luckily my ray gun was still strapped there. I pulled it out and backed up. I saw a SCARECROW agent come up over the edge of the stream.

I shot out a barrage of lasers. Each laser ricocheted off the agent, probably one of the students, judging from that black armor. They ducked below the edge of the concrete.

“Leya! Don’t shoot!” screamed the voice of a young man.

I bent my eyebrow. Why the hell was he calling me by my name? And don’t shoot?

I put down my gun, though kept it aimed, and edged closer. Maybe this situation could work to my advantage. It’s just one agent. He has to know something about Gerard. How to get close to him. How to rescue the other guys…

“Fine, I won’t shoot!” I called out. “But if you so much as reach for a gun after you get up here, I’m shooting your ass!”

“I won’t!” the agent cried out.

“Okay…” I answered with a gulp, waiting for the agent to come over.

He hesitantly climbed over, and I wondered if I looked as much like a seal flopping on deck as he did. He picked himself up on his hands and knees, then stood up straight. He rose his hands up, and I kept my stance with my gun.

He moved for his helmet this time, then twisted and pulled it off. His face was obscured in the darkness, but I recognized that fringed, spiky blonde hair. And now his voice sounded familiar. I shuddered.

It was Zack. He was alive!

I hadn’t even realized he was one of the soldiers up there. But shit, if he’s alive, then…he’s got to be pissed about me leaving him stranded in the Borderlands.

Zack threw his helmet down, then started to walk towards me.

I snapped out of my shock and shot at the ground just in front of him.

“What the hell? You said you wouldn’t shoot!” he shouted.

I backed up. “That was before I knew I was dealing with a crazy person.”

Zack scoffed. “I kept my word―I haven’t reached for my gun. And I won’t.”

“We both know you don’t need a gun to put up a fight,” I argued as I backed up and shot at the ground in front of him again.

He stopped and raised his hands up in surrendering gesture. “Leya, relax―I’m not going to hurt you!”

“Then why are you here? To take me back because you’re working for Gerard, right? He ordered you down here to get me.”

Zack’s cheeks hollowed as he scrunched his lips in frustration. “That’s not why! I mean, technically it is, but―just let me explain―let’s just talk!”

He continued to walk forward. It was getting harder for me to find places to not shoot him, so I backed up some more.

I stared at him as I held my ray gun under my chest. “Remember the last time we talked―you were about to shoot me for being a ‘traitor.’”

Zack sharply exhaled. “Just calm down. Alright? I’ll get you out of here and then―”

I picked up my gun. “Don’t step closer. I’ll shoot.”

Zack swallowed. Then he took a tentative step forward, getting into my space. He smirked.

“See? You won’t shoot me.”

I creased my brow and whipped the back of my left hand across his face.

“Ow!” he cried out. Though, he didn’t move.

I backed away, but he just followed.

“Would you stop?” Zack asked. He had his arms stretched out and bared in a defensive position.

I swiftly moved to punch him again, and he let me get him―but he grabbed my wrist, then stuck one of his legs in between mine until he tripped me up. So now I was down on the floor, while he pushed aside my ray gun and held my arms down to the ground.

I struggled against him, but I’m not that strong in the first place and I’m already battered from my fall―the pain makes it even harder to do any kind of tussling.

“I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve left me no choice. Why are you fighting me so much?” Zack glared down at me, his damp hair still shaking drops of sewer water off of the ends.

“Go ahead and kill me! I’d rather die than get arrested and taken to Gerard by you!” I yelled.

“I’m not going to kill you!” Zack shouted.

I kicked up at him, but he held me fast. Fuck his stupid biceps. He didn’t even have biceps in high school!

“Good work,” a low, masculine voice announced from nearby.

I glanced to the side and tried to look behind Zack. There were the edges of a SCARECROW Academy uniform.

Zack whipped his head to the side. “Andre, what are you doing here?”

“The General sent me. You were taking long.”

Zack let out an exasperated breath and rolled his eyes. “Well, did he expect me to bring her back up there in five seconds? You know how far it is?”

I looked back at Zack and fumed. Fucking liar, he was totally planning on taking me back up there―despite his pleads to “talk.”

“You should just kill her,” this guy Andre suggested. “She’s no use to the General, anyway.”

“No,” Zack sneered. “She’s a friend.”

Andre scoffed. “You know that doesn’t mean anything to the General, right? I mean, those other guys were his friends, too.”

“No, I mean, she’s _my_ friend,” Zack argued. He glanced shortly at me, his blue eyes slightly guarded and full of apprehension. He looks scared. He’s even eased up his grip on me.

“She’s your friend? How―She’s a Killjoy!” Andre yapped.

“From high school,” Zack answered as his eyes narrowed.

I wonder if I should offer any input to this conversation, but I have a feeling anything I said wouldn’t matter.

“She’s the enemy now,” Andre persisted. I heard his steps approach, and I looked up to see the shadow of his face. He looked like he had a beard.

“We were told to bring her back alive,” Zack protested as he stared at Andre.

“Step aside,” Andre exhaled. “I’ll deal with her.”

Zack creased his golden-brown eyebrows. “What the fuck do you mean?”

“Don’t ask questions!” Andre spat as he came closer. Now I could see his boots clearly. “As your superior, I order you to stand back.”

“No,” Zack said in a strong voice. Though I could see his Adam’s apple twitch as he gulped.

God, what the hell was even going on here?

“Do I need to remind you what happens when you don’t follow orders?”

Zack pressed his lips tight together and kept his ground over me, while his comrade walked closer, his gun bared.

I couldn’t tell if he was going to shoot me or Zack.

And then a second later, Zack rolled away from me and sat on the ground, staring up at his superior officer.

“That’s what I fuckin’ thought,” Andre sneered.

I was still lying on the ground, in between Zack and Andre. Andre came closer, his gun bared at me.

I rolled over and scrambled for my ray gun, which was only a few feet behind me. But as I reached for it, a laser hit the ground, and dust clouded over my hand.

“Don’t even think about it,” Andre growled.

I looked up and made eye contact with Zack, who had his palms planted on the ground, but was staring at me with a pale face, his eyes wide with concern. He shook his head once at me.

I didn’t reach for the ray gun again, but just a couple seconds later, I felt my shoulder get roughly pushed aside. Andre had knelt down and was grabbing me by my shirt collar now.

“Grr…” I gritted out against the pain as I winced.

“You know what I hate more than Killjoys?” Andre sneered down at me. “Female Killjoys,” he spat out. Literally. Fuckin’ spat on me.

Now that I got a good look at him, he was much older than Zack. Dark haired with a dark, scruffy beard, weathered eyes and wrinkles around them. He smelled like a mix between diesel and sewer.

“See, you female Killjoys are everything that’s wrong with society―we’re better off without women who don’t know their place. Taking up a gun, creating anarchy, living like a desert rat. It’s shameful. When our world population has dwindled so much, and you have the most important job―to provide the next generation. Tell me, do you know any female Killjoys who have a family?”

“Wow, I think I can actually taste the stupid that’s been coming out of your mouth. But that might also be your bad breath. You really are the worst kind of misogynist, aren’t you?” I quipped.

“What?” Andre growled.

“Bet they didn’t teach you that word in your little Academy, huh?” I kept egging him on.

“Like I was saying,” Andre said as he brought his gun and pressed the barrel against my chest. “The world is better off without ratty girls like you who don’t know their place. And I’m sure the SCARECROW General has no use for you. So I bid you goodbye, and good riddance.”

*PEW*

My eyes shot wide.

Andre had dropped to the side, his eyes still open, though I could see blood leaking out from the back of his head. His gun was still on me, and I sidled away from it, letting it softly clatter on the ground.

He was dead.

Zack scrambled to a standing position, then walked over to me. “You okay?

I just gaped up at him. My ray gun was in his hand. He shot Andre for me. He had saved me. Sort of.

Zack reached an arm out for me. I declined and used my own palms and feet to boost myself up off the floor.

“Can you believe me now?” Zack sighed out as he kept a serious stare on me. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

"We’ll see…” I replied, keeping a careful gaze on him as I took my ray gun from him.

“Please, Leya.” Zack was looking at me with softly bent-up eyebrows.

I groaned. “What do you want? Why are you down here? Did you choose to come, or did Gerard know that you knew me?”

“I chose to come,“ Zack replied as he bent down to pick up his own gun. "I wanted to make sure you were alright.” His wet, blonde hair was plastered to his forehead, and he looked a bit pitiful with the forming red bruise on his cheekbone. Which I gave him, I guess. Well, served him right…

I swallowed for the first time in a few minutes. “What are you going to do about…the body?” I asked as I stared down at Andre, who was leaking increasingly more blood.

Zack looked down with a taut expression in his jaw. Then he walked over to Andre’s body and put his hands on his hips as he stared down.

“Do you want some help with that?” I asked.

He looked over at me with a bewildered stare. “I just killed my superior, Leya. And now you’re asking to help get rid of the body?”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with a dead body,” I answered as I looked over at him, returning his serious gaze.

There was something between us that got communicated without words. His eyes were just as dark as mine, and the uncertain gape of his mouth matched my own awkward lip bite. We were both just kids who had been thrust into this violent world. We had both lost innocence. We both know what it’s like to take the life of another. And now we’ve both found someone else who knows exactly what that means to the kids we used to be.

I walked up and knelt down to Andre’s body, gripping one of his arms. “I’ll help you,” I said again.

Zack gulped, but nodded. Then he helped me hoist Andre’s body back into the sewer. I don’t know where this stream goes, but he’ll be hard to find wherever he ends up.

I exhaled as I wiped my hands on my jeans—which didn’t do much, since those were still uncomfortably drenched in sewer water as well. I was feeling soggy in places I don’t care to mention.

“Are you alright? That was a big fall you took. And you’re limping.“ Zack pointed down to my leg.

I creased my brow. Then I blinked as I thought about the question. "No—I’m not alright. My friends just got arrested by a psychopath who used to be my friend, too. I don’t know if he’s going to kill them or brainwash them or who knows what? And now he’s still going to look for me! And now your ass is down here and it’s fucking weird because you’re this SCARECROW Academy student or soldier or whatever and you’re under Gerard’s control and it’s all just bizarre since you’re being…nice. Which obviously makes me not want to trust you at all.”

"I don’t want to hurt you. And I’m not going to. How many times do I need to tell you?” Zack asked, his lips pursed.

I put my hands on my hips. “Listen, I don’t know if the pills they made you take affect your memory or something―but last time we met, you tried to fucking kill me… So excuse me for having trouble making sense of this.”

Zack threw down his gun and raised his arms up. “I’m not going to hurt you. Leya… I just want to be friends again.”

“We were never friends, Zack. Not really,” I replied with a swallow. “I haven’t even thought about you in two years. You don’t mean anything to me.”

It was a bit harsh, but it was the truth.

Zack looked down and swallowed. “Fine, whatever. Just—Look, I saved you from that guy, right? I haven’t taken you back. I don’t want to arrest you. And maybe I don’t mean anything to you, but you were one of my best friends in high school.“

I looked over at him, noting the guilty face. Ugh, he looked like a sad puppy.

I crossed my arms. "How can you say that? We didn’t even hang out!”

“So? We had that bond over the rank rivalry. We had almost all the same classes together. And you were one of the few people I even talked to during class.”

“Why does this mean anything to you now? Huh? Why are you trying to be my friend?” I skeptically asked. “Back in the Borderlands, the past didn’t make you sentimental. Though you still held a fucking grudge over being ranked behind me, and _then_ you almost killed me.”

Zack looked down, an intense gaze burning into the ground. “The Borderlands… when you left me cuffed to that pipe, I was stuck there for three days. And in those three days, the effects of my supplements wore off.”

“Supplements?”

“Yeah, pills. Everyone who’s in the elite class has to take them. They help us with physical health and like, attention or something,“ Zack explained. "But it had weird side effects…like I was angry all the time… And once I was off them for long enough, then I snapped out of it and realized how horrible it was of me to attack you. I mean, I was still upset about you being a Killjoy, but I would never kill you over it. Not in my right mind.”

I stared over at him as I kept my arms crossed. If what he says is true, and it was just the pills… then he could actually be telling the truth when he says he doesn’t want to take me back to Gerard. But…why is he even here in the first place?

“Look, I know you don’t want to believe me, and that’s fine. You have valid reasons,” Zack continued. “But at this point, the only thing keeping you out of Gerard’s hands is if he believes you’re either dead or lost. And I can be of help in that way.”

I was silent for a bit. “Why would you do that?”

Zack sighed. “Because I’ve heard the stories. And I know you. You’re not a criminal, and you’re not crazy. And you need help. Especially now that you’re on your own.”

I looked down and fidgeted with my feet. He’s exactly right. Damn it.

“Do you trust me now?” Zack asked, his arms crossed.

“No,” I curtly replied.

Zack frowned. “What do I have to do to prove it to you?”

“You can’t,” I replied with a grin.

He sighed, then started to take off his vest, then his arm guards, and then his shin guards, until everything that was protecting him was gone. He even got down on his knees.

“I am completely at your mercy,” Zack said as he bowed his head forward.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Fine. I’ll be stupid and believe you. Get up.”

He got up, one knee after the other.

I kept my ray gun aimed at him and waited for him to stand fully upright. He flattened his eyes as soon as he saw me.

“Really?” he asked. “After that huge gesture?”

“Can’t always be completely sure,” I answered with a shrug of my shoulder.

Zack raised an eyebrow, then nodded. “Are you really okay? Your leg…”

I looked down. I had been limping a bit because my knee hurt.

“I can look at that for you—”

“No!” I snapped. Part of me was angry because usually, any medical repair work was reserved for Mikey. And now Mikey wasn’t here. Because he and the others—

“I’ve been trained in first aid. And I’ve got supplies,” Zack said with a warm smile as he patted his pant leg.

“I’m fine,” I said as I took another slow limp across the ground.

Zack crossed his arms, then sat down on the concrete floor. “Okay.”

I turned around and creased my brow. “What are you doing?”

“A sit-in. I’m not moving anywhere until you let me check out that knee.”

I scoffed. “Cool! Guess I’ll see you never.”

I started to walk away and glanced back to see if he actually stayed. He did. With that same dopey grin on his face. God, he was annoying…

Then it occurred to me―I have no idea how to get out of here. And though I could probably find my way myself, it’d probably be best to stick with Zack. If just to make sure he wasn’t double-crossing me. Although, he did kill his superior… Crazy. That had to take some serious courage―or serious treachery. Though, I don’t think Zack has it in him to be that cruel.

I sighed to myself and started walking back.

“Oh, what’s this?” Zack asked as he perked up his head. If he was a dog, I bet his ears would have perked straight up.

“Fine,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry. What’s fine?” he blinked in mock cluelessness.

“You can look at my leg or whatever,” I mumbled.

“Let me hear you say that one more time, and add a 'please’ in there.”

I groaned. “Fuck off, I don’t have time for this…”

“Alright, alright. Sit down.” Zack patted the ground next to him and started to unzip the pocket in his pant leg.

“Do you really have to be this obnoxious about it?” I asked as I sat down, then started to take off my left boot.

“I like to call it a lesson in patience. You always were a stubborn one,” Zack remarked with a grin.

“Was not!”

Zack laughed. “You always argued with me, because you always had to be right.”

“That’s because I was always right and you were always wrong,” I replied.

“Okay, number three.”

“That’s right, number four.”

It was different with Zack than it was with Mikey. Whereas Mikey had an almost artistic concentration when he bandaged me up, Zack was more like a child playing doctor―in the sense that he had some weird enjoyment out of bandaging my leg―with way too much gauze―and taped it up with a lot more than necessary bondage.

His cheerfulness is very off-putting. I’m almost preferring the angry psycho―except no, not really. The Zack I remembered from high school, he was a really nice boy. That’s why it was so jarring to see him in the Borderlands, how violent he was.

“What happened to you?” I asked as he taped down the bandage around my knee.

He rose his eyes up to me, a dark shade of blue now. His eyebrows were relaxed, though his lips betrayed his discomfort as they twitched.

“What do you mean?” he quietly asked.

“Why are you being nice to me?” I asked him. “What changed your mind about me being a Killjoy?”

He kept his eyes on my knee. “We’re friends.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

He looked up and met my eyes. “And you saved me. I saw those guys with you, they killed my comrades…”

I gulped and looked down. Fuck…

“But you didn’t let them kill me,” Zack continued, sounding grateful. “Even though I was a monster. Even though I almost killed you.”

I swallowed. “Well… you were my friend.”

Zack slightly hooded his eyes. “Hmm.” A smirk was playing on his lips.

“What?” I muttered.

“You’re contradicting yourself,” he told me with a smug look as he started to put his supplies away. “I thought you said we were never friends.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Well, you were an acquaintance! And I wasn’t going to kill you. I had no reason to.”

Zack nodded. Then he cleared his throat. “So what was so important that you needed to go and expose yourself to the city?”

I reached for the cord around my neck and fingered the flash drive. “The truth about your supplements. And a series of other unethical treacheries. We were going to tell it to the world.”

Zack’s eyes widened. “You still have it?”

“Yeah. Who knows if it works, though…” I sighed. Frank trusted me with this… Now what am I supposed to do, now that they’re all captured and… I’m just me…?

Zack stood up then. He reached an arm down for me, but I didn’t take it. I crossed my arms over my knees and rested my chin on them.

“What are you going to do now?“ Zack asked.

I looked down, feeling all the guilt and pain of what just happened all over again. What do I do? Should I try and get the guys out of Gerard’s custody? Can I even get them back? And then what? Should I try and get to the broadcast center again? Does this flash drive even work after being dragged through all that water? And then what will happen? What if that solves nothing? The guys will still be arrested, and I’ll still have nowhere to go.

Nowhere…

“I want to go home,” I finally whispered into my knees, trying not to cry.

I’m just so exhausted. I don’t want to do anything. Everything’s turned to shit. And now I’m sitting in underground levels of a sewer while my friends are off to get brainwashed, too. And I don’t know what to do.

I felt a hand gently move onto my shoulder. I looked over at Zack, who had knelt down next to me.

“I’ll take you home,” he told me with a deep look and a slight upward twitch at the corner of his lips.

Well, there was at least one silver lining to all of this.


	11. Chapter 11

“This is a bad idea,” I said once I stepped onto the front concrete porch of my house.

I know logically, this is a bad idea. A VERY bad idea. My parents are probably still being watched closely. If SCARECROW knows I’m here, I’ll get arrested. Which is the opposite of what I want to happen.

But my heart wants nothing more than to just be with people I feel close to. And right now, the only people who are alive and within reach are my parents.

“Well, we’re already here,” Zack replied. He glanced over to me, looking even worse in shape in the waning dusk light. He had been hurt in his fall, too, bruises on his face from our little scuffle, and we both were still soaked and smelling of the sewer, that gross chlorine-like scent mixed with something like sulfur.

I don’t even want to know what I look like. If the reflection of the windows in the metro we took to get to District 4 were any indication, I closely resembled a sad, drowned rat with my wet hair gone stringy and tangled.

“Did you want to back out? Go somewhere else?” Zack asked as he rubbed at his chin.

I glanced at him without answering. So far, he hasn’t double crossed me. But I still don’t know whether to trust him or not.

I shook my head. “No… I mean, if we got followed or we were being watched, it’s already too late to prevent being discovered.” I took in a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

Zack stood next to me, his hands folded behind his back. Head straight and faced forward with a solemn expression on his mouth. It was weird…how soldier-like he was. I didn’t have enough time to deeply consider that because the door opened.

It was Mom.

Still in her work clothes, but her light brown hair let down while she looked at me imploringly. I’d never been so happy to see her. She looks calm and collected. She and Dad must be alright, then. That’s good.

“Leya? What are you doing back here already?” she asked as she blinked her brown eyes at me. Then she scanned her eyes over to Zack.

“Who’s this?” she asked.

I turned to Zack and and replied, “This is Zack. I knew him in high school. He was ranked just behind me, number four.”

Zack gave me a bit of an exasperated stare before he moved forward and stuck out his hand. “Hi, Mrs. Novena.”

"Hi,” my mom replied with a bright smile as she shook his hand.

“Mom, can we come inside?” I glanced around me, checking if anyone else were on the street. “You know… if you’re still being watched…”

“Oh, of course!” She grinned. “Come in, come in!”

I walked in and Zack followed. Mom closed the door behind him, then turned back to me. She was still smiling.

I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around her.

“Oh—is everything alright?” she asked into my hair as she tentatively grabbed me back.

“Yeah,“ I said as I kept my face burrowed into her shoulder, which smelled like the same perfume she’d worn since I was little. “Well… not everything, but… I’m just really glad to be home.”

Mom gently squeezed at my elbow as she pulled away. “Let me go get your father…”

“Tony!” Mom called as I led Zack into the living room.

“Umm, have a seat,” I said as I took a seat myself on the gray sofa. He looked around my house, taking slow, pacing steps before he finally sat down next to me.

“What is it, Barbara?” Dad finally called back. I could hear him walking down the stairs.

“Leya’s home,” Mom answered as she stood at the edge of the staircase.

I saw my dad walk down the stairs in his unbuttoned white dress shirt, tie still loose around his neck.

“You look terrible,” he addressed to me with a slight furrow in his brow. “What’s with your hair?”

“She smells a bit, too,” Mom added in a low voice.

“You know, I’m right here,” I awkwardly laughed as I stared between them both, now joined at the foot of the stairs.

“Oh! And this is her friend, umm… what was your name again?” Mom asked while gesturing a hand to Zack.

“Zack,” Zack replied as he stood up again, back straight and arms at his sides. This is a guy that used to slouch all the time in class. I’m not used to this.

“Oh, that’s a SCARECROW Academy uniform, isn’t it?” Dad asked as he crossed his arms.

“Yes, sir,“ Zack replied with a swallow. "I’m with the elite class.”

Dad walked over to the living room until he got close to Zack. “Elite class, eh? And as a member of SCARECROW, you’re bringing Leya home?”

“Um, well, yes. Sort of,“ Zack replied with a tilt of his head.

“Huh,” Dad remarked as he fixed his dark eyes onto Zack.

“Wait—don’t you two want to know why I’m here? Why Zack’s here?” I asked as I leaped up to a stand this time. I took in a gulp, preparing to tell my parents about the guys.

Mom and Dad glanced between each other then back to me. “Why?”

“The guys… Frank and the others, they’ve been captured by Gerard,” I explained in a shaky voice. “And I only got out of getting arrested because Frank saved me, and…” I looked at Zack, “Zack wants to help.”

“Even though you’re in SCARECROW?” Dad asked.

“I’m going to help Leya because we were friends. She doesn’t deserve to be arrested,” Zack explained as he glanced back at me.

“But my friends did…?” I muttered as I shot a side glance to him.

He stared back and his lip opened in a slight grimace. “It’s a lot more complicated than that, Leya—”

“Well, why don’t you shower, freshen up, and then we’ll all talk about this over dinner?” Mom told me with a gentle smile.

I blinked and felt my stomach ache with emptiness. I guess I was feeling a bit hungry, now that I thought about it…

“Um, okay,” I answered.

“Zack should be able to shower, too,” I added with a brief clear of my throat. “I mean, we won’t exactly have clothes for you to change into, but….”

“It’s fine. As long as your parents don’t mind too much, I’ll just stay in my uniform.” Zack pursed his lips. “I’ve been through worse.”

Right. Being stuck in the borderlands for three days without food or water was probably worse than this.

I smiled at my parents as I walked forward. “I… guess I’ll go shower now.” I approached my father with my arms outstretched for a hug, but he stepped back out of my reach.

He laughed, “Like I’m letting you touch me when you smell like a sewer!”

I softly laughed as I moved in for a hug again, but Dad really must have meant it, because he ducked out of reach again and moved over to the kitchen.

“Use the upstairs bathroom, Leya,” Mom told me while I blinked, a bit disappointed that I couldn’t hug my dad hello.

“Um, okay…” I replied. I looked back toward Zack, who decided to sit back down on the sofa. I think he’ll be okay here… Dad didn’t freak out, and mom seems to be in a hospitable mood.

I walked up the stairs, leaning a hand for support on the rail, as my knee started to hurt me again. Once I got to the top of the landing, I walked the remaining steps to the bathroom and shut myself in there. After relieving myself and washing my hands, I decided to take a good look in the mirror.

I looked awful.

There were red bruises on my face, my hair looked just like I imagined it did, and my eye bags made me look scary.

It was weird being back here. While Frank and the others–what the hell is happening to them right now?!

I let the water run and doused some onto my face, and it felt good. Calmed me down a bit. And maybe it was the actual clarity provided by the light in the bathroom, or the fact that I was finally alone. But it occurred to me that something about all of this was off.

Zack is still downstairs with my parents. Alone. Why aren’t they questioning this more? He’s SCARECROW, for god’s sake.

This isn’t a good idea.

If they’re still being watched, and I’m sure they are–wouldn’t they be more careful?

And why are they being so calm? Why is dad not freaking out about the cuts on my face? Why is he not freaking out about me bringing a boy home—a SCARECROW Academy student, nonetheless. Why is mom not crying? Why are they just so calm and collected and..making dinner???

I felt my heart start to race.

Shit.

They’re on pills again, aren’t they? BL/ind got to them…

Shit.

I closed my eyes and tried to think my way through this. They’re being calm… they’re cooperating with Scarecrow… that means–I have to keep an eye on them!

I leaped over to the door and turned the knob to open it. But it wouldn’t budge. It was locked. WHICH IS NEW.

“Fuck,” I whispered out as I tried to open it again to no avail, wringing my hands along the steel.

SHIT. THIS WAS THEIR PLAN. This is why mom told me to come up here. This is why they’re both acting okay with Zack being SCARECROW. SHIT.

It’s only a matter of time until my parents come back here. If their plan was to lock me in, I can only imagine they’re setting me up for BL/ind or SCARECROW forces to come take me away.

I looked under the sink to see if any tools were here, but there were only chemicals and sponges and trash bags. I had nothing to break this door down with. I took my ray gun out from my jeans and shot at the lock.

I shot five times around the door handle until the space was completely obliterated. With the wood still smoking, I reached for the towel behind me and forced the door open this time.

I rushed out onto the hallway with my gun bared and waiting

Zack was just coming up the stairs and I met him at the landing.

“Zack, we have to get out of here!” I hushed out to him as I grabbed at his wrist.

He creased his brow as he walked down with me. “Why?”

I glanced an eye to see if my parents were there. Mom wasn’t in the living room. So they both must be in the kitchen.

“They’re not themselves. I’m pretty sure they’re setting me up for BL/ind to come—the door was locked from the inside!” I whispered through my teeth.

Zack nodded, his golden hair flopping a bit on his forehead as he did so. His face looks so calm. Don’t tell me this was another soldier thing…

“So… let’s get out of here,” I told him with a raise of my eyebrows.

“I can’t let you do that,” Zack replied as we got to the foot of the stairs.

“What?” I creased my brow.

Zack darted a hand out and threw the gun out of my hand. Then he grabbed at my left wrist and wrenched me forward as he sauntered towards the kitchen.

“What the hell are you doing?!” I growled as I struggled to pull away from his grip.

“I’m helping you,” Zack said as he continued to pull me along into the kitchen.

Mom and Dad were standing in the middle of the kitchen, and Dad had something in his hand, held up to his chest.

There was no food being prepared at all.

WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?

I pushed Zack and wriggled out of his grip. Then I broke into a run for the front door, wrenched the doorknob to open it—only to be met with two men in suits.

I recoiled with a gasp, and reached for a gun that wasn’t there. The two men charged forward and I ran back to look for my gun—FUCKING ZACK HAD IT.

“Leya, just be calm. They promised us that as long as you don’t struggle, you won’t be harmed,” Mom said as she walked into the living room, Dad on her side.

“Like hell I won’t be!” I exclaimed. I can make it to the door if I just get past those suits…

I ran forward and punched at one of the suits so he bent over. The other one tried to grab at me, but I did a roundhouse kick and got him in the chin. The doorway was clear! Now I just have to make a run for—

“Oof!” I groaned as I hit the ground face first. It was Zack who tackled me and was now practically sitting on me.

“Thank you,” one of the suits told him. In the next second, I felt myself get grabbed by multiple sets of hands. Until I was carried onto the coffee table, then pinned there. My already bruised back was stinging and aching once more.

“Let go of me!” I shrieked as I tried to break from everyone’s grip.

“Do you have the medication?” the other suit asked.

“What? Medication?!” I gasped as I looked up to see Dad untwist something in his hand.

“What the fuck is this?!” I growled as I still struggled. The two agents held down my legs as my mom held down one arm and my dad held down the other.

“This is for your own good, Leya!” Mom argued as she held my wrist to the table.

I flexed my arms and wriggled as much as I could to try and break from their grip. Where the hell was Zack? I’m going to fucking kill him when I get out of this!

“Honey, you’re going to feel much better after you take this. Then we’ll all be one happy family again,” Dad said as he brought his cupped hand near my face.

I shook my head left and right as I tried to keep my mouth shut. Dad grabbed at my chin and cheeks until my mouth was puckered open. Then mom took tablets from his hand and shoved two pills into my mouth. She kept her hand over my mouth while my dad kept my jaw shut.

I wanted to scream.

I tasted the bitterness in my mouth, permeating and spreading over my tongue like cement and my glands salivating because they know how unwelcome and disgusting this is. It’s all coming back to me now—I FUCKING HATED THE TASTE OF THESE THINGS. EVEN WITH APATHY, THE ACTUAL PROCESS OF TAKING PILLS WAS SOMETHING UNPLEASANT. GOD, PLEASE DON’T LET ME TURN INTO A ZOMBIE AGAIN. FUCK. FUCK!

The lights sparked and the room went pitch black. I felt the different sets of hands and limbs on my body ease their grip—giving me just enough leeway to bite at my mother’s hand and spit out the tablets she gave me, while breaking from the other arms.

I could still see a bit from the gray light that was coming from the back door. I kicked the heads of the two suits and elbowed and punched away my parents. At this point, survival was my only driving force, my only compass between right or wrong. They’d forgive me if they were in their right minds.

I scrambled across the table and out the front door, whipping my head around to look for any other agent that might be lurking on this street. Just a couple seconds later, I heard the door open once more and it was the two suits.

They were damn resilient for not being Dracs or Scarecrow agents—although, just because they were dressed in suits and didn’t have guns doesn’t mean they can’t be soldiers.

I bared my fists to fight, and then Zack barged out of the front door—OH, HOW I WAS GOING TO GIVE HIM A PIECE OF MY—

*PEW*

*PEW*

Both of the agents went down. Dead.

Zack continued to rush toward me as I let my mouth gape in shock.

“Get the fuck away from me!” I screeched as I backed up, noting that he held my very own ray gun in his hand.

Zack tightened his hand on the gun and a line formed at the bridge of his nose. “Calm down.”

“Calm down? Calm down! You just fucking killed your own men—twice now! AND YOU FUCKING SET ME UP SO MY PARENTS COULD DRUG ME!”

“I did not!” Zack shouted, his face having gone red now.

I choked out a sarcastic laugh. “Oh! So you didn’t forcibly drag me to the scaffold?”

I’m starting to think he really has gone insane. He keeps switching from bad to good so fast, it’s making me feel queasy.

“Did I hurt you, Leya? Are you dead?” he snapped, then pursed his lips. “Didn’t think so.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Just because I’m not dead doesn’t mean you’re not doing harm. Take my fucking ray gun—tell Gerard where I am—tell the whole world, I don’t care! I’m just staying the hell away from you, if it’s the last thing I do!”

I broke off into a run down the darkening street. I could hear Zack’s boots clop on the sidewalk behind me as he followed. Of course he’s chasing after me…of course…

“Who do you think hit the lights?!” he shouted.

I didn’t answer.

“I did this to protect you!” Zack gasped out as he got closer.

“Liar!” I shouted as I turned my head to face him.

“What reason do I have to lie?” Zack yelled. “If I wanted you to get arrested, why would I go through all this trouble of getting you to your parents’ house instead of turning you in right away?”

“You’re crazy!”

“Leya, please!” Zack cried out as he finally passed me up. I stopped, my breath heaving in and out of my chest now.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a swallow. He was looking at me with a real strung out look, worn-lines in his skin, sad blue eyes looking dark in this dusk light.

“If they knew I was helping you out, we both would be hunted now. If I didn’t pretend, that information would have gone straight to SCARECROW. If I didn’t kill those guys, our secret would be out.”

I crossed my arms as I considered this. I guess it kind of fit the situation… “Well, did you have to be so fucking convincing? Thanks to you, now I have half a pill inside of me, and who the fuck knows what that will do to me!”

Zack looked down. “I had to play the part fully. And you’ll be fine. I think. You didn’t swallow it right?”

I made a choking noise. “My brain could be turning to dust right now! I’ll be fine? I’ll be fine?!”

Zack cleared his throat as he put his hands behind his back. “Well, you’re freaking out—which is a good sign that the pills aren’t working.”

I could feel my face twitch in annoyance. I bit at my lip before exhaling, “What even was your goal when you went after me in those sewers, Zack? Why all this trouble?”

Zack stared at me. “I wanted to save my friend.”

“Well, no one asked you to,” I bit back. “Especially not with your… unorthodox methods.”

Zack furrowed his brow. “And where would you be without me right now? Leya, I’m in a better position than anyone in this whole city to help you. I know that’s something you’re unaccustomed to—getting help from other people, since you’re superior to everyone else. But I’m helping you because that’s what friends do! Even when their friends are stubborn as hell and don’t know when to admit they can’t do things on their own!”

I was seething with fiery rage at his words. He was so fucking wrong.

“You think I don’t know anything about getting help?” I scoffed, feeling myself shake. “I’m _here_ because so many people have helped me–I’m _alive_ because of that. And a lot of my friends have been hurt or killed because they helped me. My own sister is dead because she helped me–and I fucking hate it. Yes, I hate asking for help! But not for the reasons you think. I hate asking for help because every time someone helps me, they get hurt. And I don’t need anyone else getting hurt for me, especially when I can do just fine on my own.”

Zack was quiet for a while.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” he finally said.

I don’t know what it was. Maybe the way he said it. Maybe I have just been dealing with too much stress today.

But all of a sudden, two streams of tears came out of my eyes.

“Sorry for what I said, too… That was stupid,” he said as he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow.

I just nodded my head, worried for what kind of noise would come out if I opened my mouth.

“I really do want to help you. And I will, if you let me,” Zack continued.

I swallowed. “Do you have a plan?”

Zack looked down, then tilted his head. “I can improvise.”

My eyes widened. We really both had no idea what to do now?

“That’s what we do best, right?” Zack asked as he gently bumped a fist against my arm.

“I guess,” I replied as I crossed my arms.

“Then let’s get going. It’s only a matter of time before they send out a search squad for you. We can’t be out on the streets.”

I nodded. “right.”

“Come on,” he said as he held out his hand.

I glanced in surprise from his outstretched hand to his face, which was calm and waiting.

I tentatively took his hand and he enclosed my hand with a firm grip and started off into a jog.

I guess I still am kind of new to letting people help me. But this is a start. To have someone take some of my own weight on them without carrying me completely. Zack isn’t pulling me. He’s with me.

Eventually we ran to district 3 before we took a break in an alley behind these big steel trash bins. With the darkness shielding us, it wasn’t as hard to get around or to evade agents that were patrolling.

But being in the dark, starved, hurting, and tired brought me back to those early days in the Zones, when I was chased by Dracs after Diamond and the others got killed. The same kind of hopelessness came over me. The same despair in that this moment was going to last forever and I wouldn’t survive.

“How long do we have to keep running?” I asked.

“Until we get somewhere safe,” Zack gasped out.

“Where’s that?”

Zack didn’t answer right away. “…I didn’t think that far ahead. But we can find a place! That’s what you and your friends did to hide from Gerard before, right?”

“Yeah—that was a plan that was weeks in the making. And with resources—we have nothing!”

“Well, what would you have done if I never showed up?” Zack asked.

I looked at the wall. What would I have done? I might have just stayed there in the sewers until I died.

“What do I do?” I asked to no one. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? I can’t go anywhere! I’ll die or be arrested and die all the same! How did I get back in this situation? How is it so fucking impossible to just find peace? Why can’t my friends just stay safe and alive and why does everything go to shit? What’s the point of anything?!”

I kicked at the wall a few times and sat down.

Zack came close to me, but he had this pained look on his face. He didn’t know what to say.

“Everything is shit!” I screamed again, making it echo. I didn’t even care if anyone else could hear me, if I’d get discovered. “The same thing happens time and time again—I run. I find a friend or a few. Then they die. Because of BLI. Because of SCARECROW. And then I’m left alone. And I start running again. And I’m tired of running! Zack, I’m so fucking tired! I don’t want to do this anymore—I just want to be normal again!” I was full on sobbing now, my nose dripping.

We should have left as soon as we figured out Gerard was in charge of BLI. We should have left as soon as we found Frank. Of course, we didn’t know. We had no idea. And I had no idea Krys was dead. There’s that arrow in my chest again. I had no idea that staying in Battery City would lead to this. But at least we found Alicia… one silver lining to all of this.

“Alicia!” I gasped out. She still has to be alive. She doesn’t know anything. HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT ALICIA?

I clambered into a stand. “How do we get to District 7 from here?”

“Why do you want to go there?” Zack asked.

“Because I need to. The only place, the only person I have left.”

He looked down. “We can take the train.“

"Is that safe?”

“It’s safer than the sewers,” Zack replied. “If you think Gerard isn’t banking on you getting out of there yourself… No, it’s better to take the train.”

I nodded in accord.

In an hour, we finally stopped off the metro in District 7, closest to the studio. When I had come back yesterday—god, that was just yesterday—I nearly got lost trying to get back, but Manchester is a boulevard that runs through this entire district. Maps in the metro station were my savior. But I knew my way now, even in the dark. I had to find Alicia.

Zack and I were walking along the alleyway of the studio and I looked into the windows. All dark. If Alicia’s here, would she be asleep? It’s not that late, is it?

“Come on,” I whispered to Zack as I climbed up the stairs, keeping a hand on the railing.

I just remembered that I didn’t have any keys—but that wasn’t a problem. Because the entire doorknob was shattered and the door stood an inch ajar.

“Oh god,” I whispered out. I took out my ray gun and cautiously stepped inside. Zack followed right behind me as I stepped onto the wooden floor. It was silent except for my own nervous breathing. I looked into the kitchen. There was no one there. I looked into the bedroom. Again, no one. The spare room, no one. This place was empty.

WHERE IS ALICIA?

“This is where you live?” Zack asked. I still hadn’t explained to him about Alicia.

I put a hand to my forehead. “Sort of. For the past few days anyway. My friend is supposed to be here.”

Zack’s eyes widened. “There’s another one of you?”

I gave him a flat look. “She’s a citizen. She’s not a Killjoy.”

“Oh,” Zack answered.

I sighed. “But she’s not here…” I squatted down, feeling tired of standing up, and put my arms on my knees.

I shook my head. “Would Gerard…have taken her? The door was forced open.”

“I don’t know,” Zack replied.

“Well, that’s just great. Alicia’s gone, too!” I wailed.

Literally everyone is gone. Frank and the others are gone. Rina’s Gone. My parents are back on the dark side. Krys is dead. Everyone else—gone. Now it’s just up to me to fix everything. If I can even fix it…

The lights turned on. I barely realized that I had been sitting in the dark, even with streetlights illuminating the room through the window.

Zack was at the corner of the room, having just flipped the switch apparently. He was now trying to close the door repeatedly, which was busted.

“Maybe there’s something we can put here to sort of barricade it?” he asked without turning back to me, trying to shut the door again.

Zack’s not gone. I keep forgetting that.

“I think there might be a bookcase in the bedroom we can use,” I answered as I finally stood up.

He nodded, then started to walk across the room. “Good. It looks like this place has been abandoned. We should be safe here.”

“We? You’re staying here?” I asked him.

He bent his eyebrows up. “Why would I leave?”

I blinked. “Don’t you have better things to do? Won’t people notice you’re missing?”

“I did go after you in the sewers, no guarantee of survival,” Zack shrugged. “Unless…you want me to leave?”

“No,” I quickly answered. I cleared my throat as I looked down. “I mean… it would be nice not to be alone.”

“Okay, then I won’t,” Zack replied with a small grin.

I nodded wordlessly before I followed Zack to help him carry the bookcase over to block the front door. That wouldn’t exactly keep agents out, but at least we’d have decent warning.

After that, the two of us took turns keeping watch while the other showered, and then we changed into fresh clothes—I let Zack borrow Frank’s t-shirt and sweats—and we both sat in the bedroom. I was on the bed, and Zack gallantly offered to sleep on the floor. It felt weird being in this big bed on my own, but at least Zack was in the same room to keep me company.

I was so tired, all my limbs sore, my bones feeling bruised, and I was feeling like I could lie down forever.

“Things sure got crazy over the past two years, didn’t they?” Zack remarked, breaking our silence. We had both been pretty quiet for the last ten minutes, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. He’s gone through a lot today, too. I’m sure killing three of your comrades is a lot to process.

“Crazy doesn’t even brush the surface,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” Zack replied. After a pause, he continued, “I know this sounds kind of messed up, but I’m glad you’re here.”

I smiled. “It’s not that messed up. I’m glad you’re here, too.”


	12. Chapter 12

I wasn’t really able to sleep.

I kept waking up every two hours or so, making sure Zack was there, wondering where the hell I was, wanting to see Frank, then remembering he and the others were gone, then crying a bit, but trying to be quiet so Zack didn’t hear.

It was rough.

I feel exhausted.

Not like I have anything to actually do today, but….

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

  
  


In the morning, Zack offered to go out to get us something to eat. I was a bit worried if he’d come back, if he’d come back with more agents to arrest me, or if something else bad would happen. I had my gun on my lap the entire time he was gone.

  
  


Luckily, he came back like he promised in less than half an hour.

We ate waffles.

  
  


“So what now?” Zack asked as we sat at the table.

I looked down as I twirled my fork again and again.

What can I actually do? Gerard’s got the guys. They’re probably going to get brainwashed. I can try and break them out, but then what? What if I’m too late? Where is Gerard even organized at—well, I guess Zack would know, but how can I even do that by myself when I couldn’t get anywhere with Frank, Mikey, and Ray?

It’s hopeless.

“Is that what you really think?” Zack asked me.

“Yes,” I bitterly replied. “I mean, you’re a part of SCARECROW. Don’t you know much power you all hold?”

Zack bent an eyebrow at me and pursed his lips.

“Well, just hold up. I’ve only been in SCARECROW for like a week. Before you guys took down the Director and BLI and SCARECROW headquarters, I was just a student getting treatment for dehydration. I only got called to work after Gerard came into power.”

I blinked as I creased my brow. “So you just got thrown into it… don’t you think that’s a bit odd?”

“Why is that odd?”

“Think about it… You’re connected to me, and you’re fresh off the field—why else would Gerard put you in his squad, other than being connected to me?” I asked.

Zack breathed out a laugh. “Thanks for putting so much faith in me.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just—”

“Well, that’s not really a wrong way to put it,” Zack muttered out of the side of his mouth. “I kind of got the position by default.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

Zack inhaled deeply. “Before you graduate, you take this combat test in the Borderlands. It was a test. Being out there, that is. You got sent out there and if you were able to survive and make it back, then you passed. I… was the only one in my unit who survived.”

I remember Dr. D telling me a bit about this back at his hideout. When he figured out where Frank was.

“Why would they do that?” I asked. “To their own students—just send them to get killed?”

Zack was staring at me complacently. I gulped. He was only alive because I spared him. And the rest of his unit was dead because of me, Ray, Frank, and Mikey.

“Zack, I’m sorry—”

“It’s okay,” he interrupted. “Everyone knew what they were getting into.” He glanced down at the table. “You were just defending yourselves.”

“How did you get out of there anyway?” I continued with a clear of my throat.

“They sent a search and rescue after the fourth day. The agents found me and immediately took me to the hospital. And since I passed the test, I got promoted. And since the SCARECROW General was in need of new troops, I was one of the new soldiers who qualified for the job. He wanted new people. I think there was… a lack of loyalty among the veteran SCARECROW agents.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I remember that first televised conference… Not everyone was happy to have a new leader…”

“Not all the agents were to happy to work with him, either…” Zack replied. “Anyway, I got promoted to work with SCARECROW, since there was a shortage of officers after the…terrorist strike.”

I scoffed. “Terrorist strike…”

“Well, you did kill a bunch of innocent agents,” Zack argued as he cocked an eyebrow at me.

I glanced to the side. “It was for the—”

“The greater good? You don’t sound that much different from the Director of BLI.” Zack gave me a hard stare.

My jaw tightened and I pursed my lips. “What, Zack? You trying to tell me I’m nothing but a cold blooded murderer who deserves to be in prison?”

“No.”

I looked at him, waiting.

He ran a hand through his wilting, pointed hair. “I’m just saying… it’s not as black and white as you make it out to be.”

“Well, I’m not surprised to hear that from you. You killed your own comrades yesterday.”

Zack looked down.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “I… I’m being a jerk right now.”

“This is war,” Zack said without looking back at me. “No side is completely right. And people… innocent people get killed on both sides. I guess… depending on how much you’ve been hurt and by who, that determines who you fight against.”

“I never wanted to fight,” I told him. “I just wanted to live free.”

“That’s why you ran away?”

I nodded. “I was on those pills for a year… you saw how I was. I wasn’t myself… And I definitely wasn’t going to be in SCARECROW after that. So I moved in with Krys, and then a few months after that, we tried to leave the city. All I’ve been doing since then is trying to live free…”

I crossed my arms and looked up to the ceiling. I thought about the past year. All the things that happened…

“Why did you come back?” Zack sighed.

“My sister. My friends. I wanted to save them,” I told Zack without looking at him.

“And now?”

I swallowed as I looked down at the table. “Now… my sister’s dead, one of my friends is brainwashed and he has kidnapped and is probably going to brainwash my other friends. And now I have nowhere to go.”

“This is too depressing, holy shit,” Zack said as he leaned his arms on the table and let himself sink down. “Sorry, just—I feel like if we keep this up, we’re only going to get more depressed and I don’t have enough alcohol for that. I don’t have any alcohol, actually. Should I go get some?”

I just blinked at him. “What?”

“Do you know how fucking serious I have to be all the time in SCARECROW?” Zack bolted up, a wild look in his blue eyes. “It’s fucking exhausting! And the other students at SCARECROW Academy? They’re all on pills, too. Not just the supplements, but like…like the ones you were on. NOBODY HAS FUN. College was always supposed to be about house parties, doing stupid shit like undie runs, and sleeping in large lecture halls. Not…fucking police academy!”

I started to laugh. “This is Battery City. What did you think SCARECROW Academy was going to be like?”

Zack laughed. “I guess…that was kind of stupid of me, huh?”

I giggled. “Well, kind of. No wonder you were always number four!”

Zack narrowed his eyes at me, though he was grinning. “Hey, I’m the official number three of our graduating class. So guess who gets the last laugh, missy!”

“Yeah, only because I pulled myself out of the running.” I flicked an eyebrow up at him.

“Well, you were using substances to aid you to the position. Me, I’ve been clean this whole time.” Zack smirked at me as he folded his arms behind his head.

“How did you manage that, by the way?” I asked.

“I guess I’m a pretty good actor,” Zack shrugged. “Never gave anyone reason to worry about me, I guess.”

“Huh,” I remarked. “Speaking of your acting skills… that was quite the show you put on yesterday.”

“Where, at your parents? The sewers?”

“All of it,” I quietly answered. Then I swallowed nervously. “Do you think Gerard suspects anything? That you and I… Do you think he’d suspect that you’re helping me?”

Zack cleared his throat. “I don’t know…”

I crossed my arms. We were silent for about another minute.

“My parents will probably notify SCARECROW again,” I finally said. “If they think that you’re still working for them, maybe they’ll think that you went after me.”

“Well, I did put up the act before I left their house. And I shot those agents with your ray gun, so…it won’t trace back to my own gun,” Zack told me with a shake of his head.

I blinked downward. “So Gerard will think I did it. And he’ll know that you’re ‘after’ me. So you’re safe.” I sent a stare over to Zack. “I think the real question now is.. what are you going to do to help me?”

Zack glanced down briefly. “I’m going to try and keep you out of Gerard’s way.”

I scoffed. “That’s your master plan? Keep me out of his way?”

Zack’s eyebrow slightly tensed as he kept his stare on me. He was sitting with his back pin-straight again, arms back down to his sides. It pisses me off that he sits up so straight now.

“Gerard was able to find us at our first super secret hideout,” I continued, making a point of slouching. “He took pictures of me while I slept. And someone knows about this place. Which is why it was broken into and Alicia’s not here—probably kidnapped or worse. And you’re trying to tell me…that you’re trying to keep me out of Gerard’s way? In a city that utilizes public surveillance, from a man that knows me and my weaknesses so well that he can probably guess my actions before me? You think that you can just pretend to apprehend me and then what? 'Oh, sorry Mr. SCARECROW General. I lost Battery City’s most wanted fugitive. Aw nuts. Also, I was friends with her and I only survived the Borderlands because of her. But that has absolutely nothing to do with why I went after her or why she has mysteriously vanished.'” I cut my clueless voice and flattened my eyes. “If you go back and tell a bullshit story like that, if he finds out… he’s going to kill you. Or worse.”

“You’re fucking rude, you know that?” Zack finally said with a purse of his lips.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, excuse me, Elite class soldier—but I have about a year’s worth of actual combat experience against SCARECROW over you. And you think you can just wing it? Do you even know who you’re dealing with?”

Zack stood up and slammed a hand on the table. “Fine, I’ll just leave.”

I looked up and scoffed. “I just told you—if you go back now, and you spin a story like that, you'll—”

“He won’t kill me.”

“You don’t know him,” I said as I placed my hands on the edge of my seat, leaning forward. “If he thinks I care about you in any way, he’ll hurt you.”

“Well, there’s not really much chance of that, is there?” Zack snapped. “After all, we were never really friends, right?”

I stood up and followed him. “Zack. Don’t leave.”

“And stay here with you? So you can berate me some more?” He was glaring at me as he put his hands on his waist.

I closed my eyes in frustration. “…I’m trying to protect you. In my own way.”

Zack stared at me. “Well that’s funny, hearing that come out of your mouth.”

I exhaled. “I’m sorry. I’m… I’m not used to people.”

He looked at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“…I’m not used to keeping people around. And I know I’m a lot to handle. And… I’m far too used to losing people, so please believe me when I say that I’m really just trying to make sure you don’t get killed. I guess… I don’t really know how to be gentle about that.”

Zack walked back toward the table, then sat down. “Well, that’s the great thing about you, isn’t it? You always just like to get to the point. No bullshitting. That’s why your essays were so great.”

“My essays?”

Zack nodded. “Come on, Leya. You were always at the top of the class in English. And Mr. Grier always praised you for how organized and concise your arguments were and how you always managed to weave your ideas together beautifully. You don’t sugarcoat things. You don’t hide who you are. That’s what I always liked the best about you. You were just so… real.”

I smiled. “Well, being real’s what got me into the psychiatrist’s office. But I’m glad you appreciated it.”

Zack nodded. “Yeah, you can be brutally honest sometimes. It’s both a blessing and a curse, isn’t it?”

“So you’ll stay? Until we come up with a good plan?” I asked.

Zack nodded. “Yeah, I will.”

I exhaled in relief. “Good.”

“You might need to work a bit on your strategy, though. Insulting people’s intelligence generally isn’t a good way to go.”

“I’m sorry… I’m a jerk, I know.”

“Yeah… well, I tried to kill you once, so call it even,” Zack sighed. “Come sit back down.”

After I sat back down, I cleared my throat and swallowed, “Well, what’s happened to you since graduation? I feel like I’ve been talking all about myself—I have no idea what your life’s been like.”

Zack’s brow relaxed, and he exhaled through his lips. “Well… I was slated to go into SCARECROW Academy—no high expectations since I wasn’t top three—so at first it was just general law and ethics courses, biology… Then after the second week, you were officially dropped, which made me the official third seed of our class and I got to choose: combat or technology. We both know how shit I was at math, and I figured… being a SCARECROW agent just meant that you trained for things, like police, but that you never really had to go out and do any fighting or killing. I thought I’d be doing like…highway patrol at the most,” Zack laughed. “And so combat training was the bulk of the program along with those general law classes. And then this past year, we had to start taking supplements and then there was this test. I… I had never killed anyone before. And when we were put out there, it was our first time. Sure, we’d done shooting range training, but to actually shoot at someone was… it was crazy. Those other guys…they didn’t hesitate. And all the adrenaline, everyone else was shooting at each other—and then you were there. And you were shooting at me—and I was just so angry at you.”

“I remember,” I interjected.

“I’m glad you stopped me,” Zack told me with a swallow.

We were quiet for a few seconds.

“You think you really would have killed me?” I asked.

“Like I said… I do not have enough alcohol for this conversation,” Zack muttered as he directed his blue eys down at the table.

“So apart from that, any fun things happen? How’s your family?”

“My family’s fine. They’re extremely proud of me making it into the Director’s immediate forces. Sent through email, of course. I haven’t seen my actual family in six months.“

“Why not?” I asked.

Zack shrugged his shoulders. “You’re just never allowed to get out of the campus. Only when I got promoted, that was the first time I was able to just go out without a curfew.”

His eyes looked sad now.

“You wanna get alcohol?” I asked.

“Thought you’d never ask,” he replied with a smirk as he looked back up at me.

—-

While alcohol was technically outlawed in Battery City, there were bootleggers who sold it. It’s funny… In a way, this Prohibition-like government put this city back into the 1920s. That plus the stupid Battery City fanfare anthem made this place feel kind of retro, although it was so technologically “progressive.” Time hadn’t really made sense for the past year, though. This whole world hadn’t made sense. All I know is that I’m somehow a criminal, defying the law, defying my “lady-like” expectations—call me a modern-day flapper.

Zack was able to procure two cases of moonshine beer and two bottles of whiskey. Apparently he knew where exactly to get it and because he was part of SCARECROW, he didn’t even have to pay for it when he could just barter it through not arresting the guy.

  
  


It was kind of weird, drinking with Zack. The last time we’d socialized together was a classroom party in 11th grade. Definitely no alcohol there.

And even though I’d never had whiskey, I surprisingly liked it—Zack mixed it with Coke—or that variant of Coke that didn’t have soul-sucking chemicals in it.

  
  


And for a couple hours, we forgot all our problems.

  
  


We were playing Blur and sitting on the floor inside the small room that Frank, Ray, and I had slept in our first night here.

“Alright, you go,” I said, working on my third bottle of beer. I really didn’t care that it was two in the afternoon.

“Okay….” Zack’s cheeks were flushed as he rested back against the wall. He was still wearing sweats and a t-shirt. He hadn’t bothered keeping up with his hairstyle, so it had gone lank, the pointed ends just barely waving upward. This imperfection and relaxed position made him look more like the friend I knew in high school. “I have never… called myself a Killjoy.”

“Oh, come on…” I groaned before I took another drink from my bottle. Zack laughed.

“I have never…called myself a soldier,” I said.

Zack narrowed his eyes at me before he drank.

“I have never…kissed a guy before,” Zack said.

“Ugh,” I groaned as I took a drink.

“Who have you kissed?” Zack asked, looking amused.

“None of your business,” I quipped back.

“Sorry, sorry, no followup questions,” he put his hands up in defense.

“Apology accepted,” I giggled. Then I put a hand to my chin. “I have never… eaten sushi.”

“What?” Zack laughed. Then he drank.

“I have never… worn nail polish.”

“Oh, screw you!” I threw a bottle cap at him. “I have never…worked out for more than an hour at the gym,” I said, barely holding in a laugh.

Zack glared at me and drank.

We went on like this for about another half hour, at least until Zack wanted to change the vinyl on the record player.

“Oh… I love this band!” he exhaled as he picked one record out of the box of LP’s that Mikey had apparently stored in here.

“Who?” I asked as I lied on the ground, letting my hair serve as a headrest. It had gotten really long, I just realized.

“It’s a surprise…” Zack murmured. He placed the disc on the turntable and carefully placed the needle on it, but it must have not been at the beginning, because a song had started to play from what sounded like the middle.

“ _ _It’s sad, oh there’s been mornings__  
_out on the road without you,_  
_Without your charms,Ooh, my, my, my,_  
_whoa, oh, oh_  
When the lights go down in the city   
_and the sun shines on the bay…”_

It was Journey. I remember this song. I remember being with Frank when I heard this song. It was after I told him about my dad. He was hugging me and letting me cry on him and being wonderful and…

Before I knew it, I had puddles under my eyes and my face grew warm. A sob escaped my throat, even as I covered my mouth.

Zack shot his eyes over to me. He tensed his brow, looking concerned.

“Hey, you okay? What’s wrong?” He was a bit buzzed so he slowly went over to me and crouched down.

I put an arm over my eyes, trying to cool them down and make the tears stop.

“I feel bad…” I gasped out, “because I’m here getting wasted while Frank and the others… what’s even happening to them?” I started to sob.

“Hey… none of that… We’re supposed to be happy drunk.”

“How am I supposed to be happy when everyone else is suffering?” I sobbed.

Zack sighed. “Well, at the very least, I’m cutting you off.”

“No… I want to keep drinking until I don’t feel anything,” I moaned as I held onto my bottle.

“If you didn’t want to feel anything, all you had to do was take those pills,” Zack gave me a coy grin.

I glared at him. “You’re supposed to be the enabler…”

“Yeah, well you’re abusing alcohol right now, alright? Come on, I thought number three was supposed to be smarter than this.” Zack took the bottle away from me and placed it behind him.

I sat up and wiped my eyes and my nose.

“Fuck being number three,” I muttered. “I dropped out of school. I dropped out of life, really. I’m dead to this city.” I turned to Zack. “Do you know what it’s like to die? I was dead for like five minutes, but I don’t really remember anything. But waking up felt really weird.”

His eyes grew even wider. “That’s it. You’ve had too much to drink.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I died… literally. You’re being very insensitive right now.”

Zack cleared his throat and stood up. “Okay. Seriously. No more talking for you.”

I stuck my middle finger up at him.

He laughed.

“Are there any board games here? We need something to do…” Zack groaned.

“I wish Frank were here,” I said. “He’s never bored.”

Zack cleared his throat again. “Is Frank… like a… boyfriend?”

I creased my brow. “What? No!” I sighed. “Why does everyone say that…?”

“Well, you’ve just been talking about him a lot. He was the one that pushed you down the sewer, right?”

I nodded. “Yes, that asshole saved me again.”

“Asshole?”

“Yeah. He’s an asshole. He likes to save me, but he doesn’t like to be saved himself. And he’ll yell at me about getting mad at him when I get hurt and he acts like a worrywart, but when I get worried, he acts like an idiot, too.”

“Hmm… you sure you’re not more than friends?” Zack asked with a grin.

I creased my brow and crossed my arms. “He’s my best friend.”

Zack nodded.

“You’re wearing his clothes, by the way,” I stated as I looked up at him.

“Oh,” Zack rose his eyebrows.

“…He’s an idiot. They all are… to save me like that,” I went on spouting my thoughts. “Fucking Mikey… he just got his wife back. And what does he do? He leaves her behind again. Idiot. Don’t be an idiot, Zack. Don’t save me. You should just leave now while you still can,” I muttered.

Zack sat back down and brought an arm around me. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” I grumbled.

“Because I promised you I’d stay. And… you’re the only friend I have.”

I looked over at him, noting the gentle smile. I managed to smile back. “I’m a terrible friend… so that sucks for you,” I giggled.

“You’re not terrible,” he laughed. I could feel the rumble in his chest.

“Well, I’m not a good friend,” I sighed.

Zack brought his knees up, then squatted on his feet. “Come on…” he said as he wrapped his arm around my back and slipped one under my knees.

“Hey… hey!” I protested as he lifted me up into his arms. He had stood up a bit shakily, but he was still standing with perfect posture.

“You’re going to sleep it off, drunkie,” Zack joked as he carried me out of the room.

“I don’t like this,” I muttered. “I don’t like being manhandled!”

Zack laughed. A few seconds later, he deposited me onto the bed in Alicia and Mikey’s room.

“There. Now go to sleep. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“I can’t just go to sleep on command,” I slurred out.

Zack laughed. “Try.”

I mocked him as I burrowed myself under the sheets, and then I closed my eyes. I guess I really was kind of tired.

God, I can’t believe I cried in front of him. Again. UGH.

  
  


  
  


I woke up feeling much more clear-headed, even if there was a slight, dull pain in my frontal lobe.

I walked out of the room into the kitchen to get a glass of water, and Zack was sitting there, reading what looked like an old comic book.

“Can I just say that I’m sorry for the way I was acting?” I winced.

Zack looked up at me and smirked. He put down the comic. “There was nothing wrong with the way you acted.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah… Yeah, there was. I… I don’t usually ever get drunk.”

Zack smiled. “Probably for good reason.”

“My head’s not really in a good place right now. What the hell was I thinking, drinking?” I shook my head. “Never again.”

“I guess it was kind of my fault,” Zack said.

“Yeah, yeah it was,” I replied, joking. I got myself a glass of water, and started to drink.

“Feeling better?” Zack asked as he stared at me.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “A lot better.”

I put down the glass and then I stood with my palms on the table. “We need to form a game plan. Now.”

Zack raised his eyebrows. “Well, you sobered up quick.”

I sighed. “Well, I don’t have time to not be sober. The clock’s ticking. It was good for me to get all of that whining out of my system… So now I can focus on what we need to do now.”

Zack gave me a serious stare. “You really aren’t kidding around, are you?”

“No, I’m not,” I replied with a shake of my head. “So… you ready to get down to business?

–-

  
  


After Zack and I formed a strategy that would hopefully work, we agreed that he would have to leave first thing in the morning. He couldn’t be gone for too long. And we’d need him to be back at SCARECROW ACADEMY. To be close to Gerard again.

“You sure you’re gonna be okay on your own?” Zack asked as we sat on the floor in the record player room again. This time, we stuck to something that wasn’t particularly nostalgic—Adele’s _21_.

“I’ll be okay. Won’t be the first time I’ve been on my own,” I said with a cheery smile.

“I wish you didn’t have to be,” Zack sighed.

“We’ll see each other soon,” I replied.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

"Thanks for staying here with me,” I told him as I looked over at him.

He smiled. “No problem.”

I looked down. “Really… With being a Killjoy this past year, and my sister gone, and my parents wanting nothing to do with me, and all my friends either dying or disappearing,.. It’s like you’re the only thing I have left in this city that feels like…home.”

He had been looking at me the whole time and his brow had furrowed. “It really wasn’t the same without you.”

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

He breathed out a small laugh. "It’s funny. It never felt the same without you. Being at school, that is. So a part of me was angry at you. For leaving _me_.”

“But… we weren’t even really friends the last year. Why would you be angry at me for leaving? Wouldn’t that have been better for you?” I asked with a blink.

Zack creased his brow. “Hey, you got kind of weird that last year, but I still thought and cared about you. You don’t just forget a rival, now do you?”

I feel kind of bad… These past two years, I don’t even think I thought of him once. Of course, seeing him in the Borderlands brought everything back. I guess I never really forgot about him.

“Anyway, I guess I was angry because a part of me was kind of jealous of you. Not only were you always better than me, but you were brave enough to leave Battery City. So me getting your spot…it was kind of like a slap in the face screaming 'Leya’s gone and you’re still here.’ I wished that I had the guts to leave, too.” His chest heaved as he sighed. "I guess I’m kind of in it for life, though.”

I rose my head. “Not for life, Zack. Just until… until we figure out this mess.”

Zack gave me a steady look. “If we don’t get caught first.”

I lowered my eyes. “When you go back… You’ll have to take those supplements again, won’t you?”

Zack was quiet for a moment. Then, “I’m not going to turn into that…that crazy guy again.”

“It’s not really up to you, though,” I replied as I wrapped my arms under my knees.

“Leya…I’ll do everyhing in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen again. And if for some reason it does happen again, you have my permission to hit me with as many poles as you like.”

He was smiling, but I didn’t see anything funny about this.

“You’re not scared at all that you’ll turn into a psycho and try to kill me again?”

“I won’t. I couldn’t be angry with you if I tried.”

“Even if you had to follow orders.. under the influence of those pills… under Gerard…”

“I’ll be fine,” Zack said as he placed a hand on my arm and squeezed.

I simply flicked an eyebrow in skepticism.

Zack blinked and then he smirked. “We’ve got a good plan. Be a bit more optimistic.”

I sighed, then replaced my arms so my chin was resting in my palms now.

“Come on, smile already. If you don’t smile in the next three seconds, I’m going to start tickling you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Grow up.”

Zack just laughed and moved his arm from my shoulder to tickle at my ribs.

I laughed against my will. “Stop it!”

He continued to tickle at my waist, even when I got up and started to push back at him. “Is that a smile? Let me see it better!” he egged on.

At this point, I was leaning away from him, but he bent over me to keep on tickling at my sides.

“Stop!” I breathed out through laughs, and I grabbed at his wrists.

Zack laughed as he stared down at me, but then he stopped laughing after a couple seconds. I stopped laughing, too. I don’t know what it was about the look on his face, but it made me feel nervous and I could feel myself start to blush. I quickly got up and let go of his wrists.

“Did I smile enough for you?” I asked as I looked indirectly at him.

He smirked from one side of his mouth. “Yeah. I’ll let you off the hook for now.”

We both sat and stayed quiet for a few seconds.

“I’ll miss you,” Zack finally said.

I jerked my head over to stare at him. Shocked to hear him say that with such a sincere voice. He has his lips pursed into a shy smile.

“It was nice to have you as a friend again,” he continued.

“I’ll miss you, too,” I said as I looked back at him.

  
  


  
  


We went to sleep early so that we could wake up early, and Zack could get back to SCARECROW Academy for his classes to start. Although he had been promoted, he still had a few weeks left of mandatory training to complete before he could be an official graduate. Which meant that we only had a few weeks

“Take my badge,” Zack said as he handed over his lanyard. “In case… In case this all backfires, and you need an escape—just go to any gate and you’ll be free.”

I looked down at the badge in my hand. “You won’t get in trouble?”

He smirked. “I’ll live.”

I stared up at him with a serious look. He really shouldn’t be saying things like that so trivially.

“You can also use that badge to go… pretty much anywhere. As long as you’re smart about not letting anyone know it’s been stolen.”

I smiled. “Smart, huh?”

Zack walked over to the door and gave me one last half smile.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said. “And I’ll try as hard as I can not to… go all Mr. Hyde again.”

I swallowed and walked over to the door to help him remove the barricade in front of it. After we got the door cleared, I told him, “Don’t make me any promises.”

His eyes darkened and he looked to the side. “Leya, I’m not angry at you anymore. Even if I turned into a raging monster, I doubt that I could direct any of it to you.”

“Even so… I think we should treat this as goodbye. I won’t be expecting you to come back.”

He looked down for a few seconds and nodded. Then he looked back at me. “Stay safe.”

“You too,” I replied, feeling a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Zack turned around and opened the door, letting the gray morning light filter in.

He had taken one step when I yelped, “Zack!” I stared in surprise, not even sure why that came out loud.

He turned back to me quickly, searching my face.

I couldn’t exactly remember what I called out his name for. So I just reached up and put a hand on his arm and gently squeezed it.

“Thank you,” I said, looking him in the eye. His hair was floppy, slightly pointed, and his face was soft and slightly puffed under his eyes because he was tired. This is the boy from high school I remember. The one who would fall asleep in Calculus. The one who I would have in class discussions on literature with. He was a friend. And I’m going to take one last good look at him—in case this is the last time I see him again.

He smiled and replied, “You’re welcome.” Then he turned back around and I took my hand from his arm. He brought the door behind him and closed it.

I stared after the door for a few seconds, feeling bluer now that he had gone. I shook my head.

Snap out of it. I’ll be fine. I’ve been on my own before.

Only now… everyone I care about really is gone. 


	13. Chapter 13

The rest of the day, I stayed home alone and did nothing.

It was all going to be just a waiting game, anyway.

Back to going to sleep with ray gun in hand, I tucked myself away from the world again.

  
  


It was midday the next day when I was sitting in the record player room and I heard something loud grate against the floor. I peeked out into the main room and saw the bookcase budge and groan in front of the door.

“Oh shit,” I gasped out as I got up. I couldn’t see who it was behind the door. If it was Zack, he’d have said something. But whoever it was didn’t seem to know anyone was here.

After a couple seconds, the pushing against the door stopped. Then I heard a series of stomping steps down the stairs outside. So I darted over to the garage door and locked it.

Just as I predicted, the brass handle began to jiggle and someone punched and hit the door repeatedly.

I creased an eyebrow as I stood back with my ray gun posed. Why was someone so anxious to get back in here?

I could hear a faint wail on the other side of the door before a final blow was made to the door.

It went silent, and I heard footsteps again.

Were they going to leave?

I got my answer a minute later as the front door began to get pounded in again.

This time, the blows were harder, and the bookcase buckled forward and toppled down.

I dashed over to hide behind the doorway of the kitchen, and peeked an eye out as the wood creaked and smashed with the force of whoever it was breaking in.

My heart was racing, and it was hard for me to breathe. But I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath and jumped out into the main room to take whoever it was off-guard.

As we both saw each other, we both let out loud gasps. My eyes widened as I realized who the trespasser was—it was Alicia! And she had a sledgehammer in her arms! And she was panting, red-faced and hunched over, her dark hair covering half her face as she stared at me in bewilderment.

“Alicia! It’s you!” I exclaimed as I put down my ray gun. I ran over and took her into a strong hug as she let the sledgehammer fall to the floor.

“Leya? You were in here the whole time?” she gasped out as she brought a hand behind my back.

“Yes, I’m so sorry! It’s just—I thought you were an agent and I was scared, but–” I wanted to almost cry. “I can’t believe you’re here! I thought that you were kidnapped, too.”

Alicia let go of me and creased her brow. “Kidnapped, too? What happened to the others?”

I gulped. “…Gerard got to us. He took them.”

“Oh…” Alicia softly let out. She looked to the ground and her mouth tightened. “So it’s just you?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Right… Okay, then,” Alicia sighed. She turned around and looked down at the carnage she made with the dresser and the front door with the sledgehammer.

“Any particular reason you were barricading yourself in here? Are you not safe?” she asked.

I sighed. “Well, when I came back to see if you were still here, the place was empty and looked like it had been broken into. That’s why I thought…maybe they would come back here to check if I was here, too.”

Alicia crossed her arms. “I see. I got out of here because Mikey told me that he’d come for me at the old house. It’s been two days, he hasn’t come.”

“The old house?” I asked with a crease in my brow.

Alicia swallowed. “The place where Mikey and I used to live. He wasn’t sure if it’d be safe, but just in case anything were to happen to him, we took a gamble. Luckily, it hasn’t been reinhabited.”

I nodded.

“Are you alright?” Alicia asked as she placed a gentle palm on my shoulder.

I stared over at her and smiled, though tears began to well up into my eyes. “I’m a lot better now.”

She gave me a sympathetic smile and pulled me into a hug again. “We’ll get through this. Glad you’re okay.”

I heaved in a deep sigh before I got around to telling Alicia the whole story, about how Gerard found us, what he had planned for the guys, how Frank saved me, and how I was working with Zack and how we sort of had a plan now.

“So what’s the plan?” Alicia asked. We were now sitting down on the bed.

“Well…” I started as I ran my fingers through my hair, “Even if we were able to break the guys out, Gerard would just come after us again. It would be the same cycle all over again. And seeing as it would take a miracle to do that anyway, and for all I know they’re all brainwashed, going after them wouldn’t solve anything.”

Alicia looked down thoughtfully. “So what exactly are you planning on doing?”

“Well, if I can’t get my boys back, I’m going to at least beat Gerard at his own game and save Battery City,” I replied, sounding a lot more nonchalant than those words should ever sound.

Alicia blinked. “Save Battery City?”

“If we find out a way to get people off of the pills, if we destroy them—eventually people are going to wake up and realize what a dystopia this is. Destroy the control over the people, then we destroy BLI. Gerard loses control over everything.”

Alicia raised her dark eyebrows. “Wow… That’s…”

“It’s crazy, right?” I laughed.

“Yeah, but crazy kind of gets things done, these days,” Alicia replied with a smirk.

“So you don’t think it’s impossible?”

“Not impossible. But… how do you plan on doing all of this…?”

I tilted my head in accord. I know how ambitious this is. I explained, “We just need an army of our own. The Director wanted an army made up of Killjoys—well, let’s give them one! The only way we’re going to beat Gerard is if we think like him. That’s what he’s been doing so far to get one step ahead of us. He expects me to go after the guys, to fight, well then, I’m going to do the opposite of that. I’m going to wait him out and strike when the time comes.”

Alicia nodded. “And that boy… the one who got you out of the sewers, he’s going to help you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he’s going to try and find out where exactly the source is for these pills, the distribution, the whole shebang. And then… he’s supposed to come back and tell me what he figures out. And… from there, we’ll set out a plan to take out the source.”

Alicia put a hand to her chin. “…Do you think Gerard would expect you and this boy to be working together?”

“Maybe,” I shortly replied. “That’s why Zack went back to SCARECROW Academy. And that’s why he gave me his badge.”

Alicia eyed it quizzically.

“It lets you go anywhere in and out of the city,” I explained as I thumbed at it. “So… in case we need to go anywhere for refuge, this badge will be our ticket out.”

Alicia nodded. “So what do we do in the meantime?”

“We wait for Zack. I know it’s not ideal, but there’s not really anything else we can do,” I sighed.

“And what about the guys? Where do they fall into your plans?” Alicia asked.

“No matter what happened, Frank told me to save myself,” I said as I grabbed my necklace. “I can’t let his sacrifice go in vain. So regardless of what may or may not have already happened to the guys, I have to ensure myself a future. The city will come first.”

I glanced over at Alicia, who kept a flat expression. I couldn’t tell if she was pissed or not.

I swallowed. “I know this is probably not in your interests, and… you probably want to save Mikey and the others more than you want to help me and I completely—”

“So how can I help?” Alicia cut me off as she stared at me.

I blinked rapidly. “You’ll help me? You’re on board with the plan?”

Alicia looked down. “Mikey told me something similar before he left. If he didn’t come back, I’d need to get myself to safety. So yeah, I’m on board.”

I smiled at Alicia. “Alright, then… Well, in order to put up a fight against BLI, we need to find a way of contacting people in and outside of Battery City to join us. Anyone. We can’t do this alone. And I’m sure… well, I hope, that we’d have allies willing to put up a fight against BLI. Zack’s thinking of persuading some of the BLI agents who don’t trust Gerard to rise up against him, too. Of course… that’s going to come later along in the plan.”

Alicia nodded. “Okay. So we’ve at least got a couple goals here. Are we going to stay here? Is it safe? We can always go back to my house.”

“I need to wait for Zack,” I sighed. “He’ll be coming back here. So I’ll need to be here when he does, and hopefully he’ll still be himself.”

“Then I’m staying with you,” Alicia responded with a solemn look. “I’m not leaving you alone.”

I shyly smiled at this. “Thanks.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Frank POV

It had already been a week since we’ve been kept custody at Gerard’s headquarters.

7th day in a row that I’ve had to hear the stupid cuckoo BLI clock with its stupid little anthem ringing out of some stupid stick figures.

The cell we were in could hardly be called a cell. First of all, it looked like a lounge. There were rectangular black leather furnished seats, white walls, and a glass that separated me, Mikey, and Ray from what looked like a regular office of cubicles. We knew we were in some kind of building in the city center, but not exactly where. It wasn’t BLI, that was for sure.

Anyway, it was relatively comfortable, except for the fact that all of us were in cuffs. Thankfully, not silicon cuffs, but regular steel link cuffs. And we got opportunities to eat and go to the bathroom. Still didn’t feel great to be a prisoner, though.

Especially when Gerard made a point of talking to us any chance he could get, which was a lot. Mostly, it was weird… like he tried to be friendly, but then he would go off into telling us how he was going to shut off our emotions just like him.

Which hasn’t happened yet. Oddly enough.

On the whole, I guess you can say we’ve been treated with civility, but god, was I so bored. Gerard wasn’t going to kill us, and he has yet to do anything to our brains, so… what exactly is he going to do with us?

I’m just worried about Leya. She clearly hasn’t been arrested yet, but there’s been zero news about her. And Gerard hasn’t told us anything… which can mean that she’s still safe. It’s better than thinking about the alternative—that I might have pushed her down that sewer river to her death.

I shuddered thinking about that.

“Hey, you okay?” Ray softly asked as he put a hand on my back.

“Yeah, just got a bit cold,” I lied to Frank. He stared at me intently, then rubbed my back.

Mikey huffed out a sigh as he rested his head along the wall. “I can’t take it in here anymore. We need to get out.”

“Relax, Mikey. We’ll get out of here,” I replied. Ever since he got his memories back, he’s been reacting more strongly to anything related to SCARECROW and BLI. And he hasn’t said anything, but I’m pretty he’s scared shitless about going under the knife to have his brain reorganized again.

I can’t fucking believe Gerard would do this to him… even if he can’t feel emotion, can’t he at least know what kind of effect this is having on Mikey? Then again, he was going to shoot Mikey back when we took out BLI headquarters… so maybe all of the empathy and love he had for his brother is truly gone.

“I mean, what does he want? Is he going to kill us? Is he going to torture us? Why are we still here?!” Mikey shouted.

“You’re still here because I want you here.”

We all snapped our heads to the glass window, where Gerard was standing with his arms behind his back.

I turned my head back to Mikey, then down at my knees.

“How are you doing, guys?” Gerard asked.

No one responded.

“Okay…” Gerard sighed. “I can understand you’re a bit upset still.”

No one said anything still. Our tactic was to just give Gee the silent treatment, and maybe he’d just go away.

He cleared his throat. “So… I never did get to ask… what have you guys been up to lately? Besides trying to destroy BLI, I mean.”

Again, silence.

I could almost hear how agitated Gerard was getting with the silence. If there was anything that pissed him off, it was being ignored.

“Okay, how about something more stimulating—has anyone hooked up with Leya yet? I mean, three guys…no wives around for a couple years, and Leya is looking more…mature these days,“ Gerard remarked.

"Shut the fuck up, Gerard,” I snapped. He is not bringing her name into this, let alone talking about her like this. For fuck’s sake…

"Ha, got you talking!” Gerard laughed as he pointed a finger at me.

I groaned and put my elbow up onto my knee.

“What—was it you, Frank?” he asked. “Awfully protective of her…and if I’m not mistaken, that was your necklace she had on.” He clicked his tongue. “That’s pretty intimate. What would Jamia say?”

I kept my face stone and straight. If we respond to his instigation, he’ll just get enjoyment out of it.

“Shut up, Gee!” Mikey shouted.

“What, was it you, Mikey?” Gerard laughed.

Mikey tightened his jaw and looked down.

Gerard’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. It really was you, wasn’t it? I mean, I knew she had a crush on you from day one, but wow… How did that happen?”

Mikey swallowed uncomfortably and kept his eyes down.

“Don’t you have something to do, like run an army, or a city?” Ray asked.

“Well, that’s the great thing about being a dictator, Ray—I have other people do my work for me. I just give out orders,” Gerard cheekily replied.

"Then go away and give out some orders,” I muttered.

Gerard pouted. “But I want to stay with you guys. My friends…”

“Friends don’t usually put friends in prison,” Ray bitterly replied.

"Well, I can’t have you ruining things out in the city. So I’m keeping you here where I can see you. I would have got Leya, too, if it wasn’t for Frank. You two are really good at ruining plans.”

Everyone was silent again.

Gerard brought a chair over to the cell and sat next to the glass. He sighed leisurely, as if he was just getting started.

“So, Mikey, tell me more about you and Leya. I have to be honest, I was rooting a bit for you two all along—even though Frank was her favorite.”

I bristled a bit at this.

“It’s not like that!” Mikey snapped.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked with a groan. “Leave him alone.”

“I’m just talking,” Gerard protested.

"No, you’re trying to upset us,” I retaliated.

Gerard cleared his throat. “Well, then you’ll be happy to know Leya’s not dead yet.”

I couldn’t help but breathe out in relief. She’s alive.

Gerard narrowed his eyes at me and scoffed. “That was smart on your part, Frank. To push her into the sewers. I sent two agents after her. They didn’t find her, of course. One of them is dead. Our girl’s become a sharp shooter, apparently.”

“She killed one of them?” Mikey asked.

“Laser in the head suggests so.”

Mikey sighed out through his nose. “She had no choice then…”

Gerard snorted out a laugh. “What’s going on, Mikes? You’re being rather broody today. it’s probably that dark hair. You were more fun as a blonde.”

“Stop talking!” Mikey snapped. “Just stop! The more I hear, the sicker I become!”

“Whoa…” Gerard remarked. “Calm down.”

“How are we supposed to calm down when we’re stuck in prison and Leya’s out there being hunted?” Ray muttered.

“Leya’s fine,” Gerard told us in a soothing voice. “Really.”

“And why should we believe you?” I asked.

“Because… I know exactly where she is. And if I know exactly where she is at all times, she’s not a threat to me.”

He knows where she is? Fuck… Fuck, what about Alicia?

“You can calm down, Frank,” Gerard told me. “I’m not going to hurt her. But as long as she’s afraid of me. As long as I can keep her hiding, then nothing will stop me.”

“So what’s your plan? Brainwash us, keep Leya away in fear, and then what? You win? You’ve won a soulless city all to yourself,” I muttered with a flick of my eyebrows.

“Not all to myself. To me and you, all of you,” Gerard replied. “This can be our city.”

“You’re out of your fucking mind,” Ray said with a shake of his head.

“You were always the one who told me to never give up on my goals, Ray,” Gerard cooed. “To keep on fighting. Well, that’s what I’m doing now.”

“Why don’t you just get the fucking lobotomy over with?” I snapped. “That way if I don’t feel anything, I won’t have to feel so fucking annoyed by you.”

Gerard looked down and cleared his throat. “…there’s actually been a bit of a problem.”

I quirked my mouth. “Oh, really?”

“Apparently only one neurosurgeon in this city was authorized to do the operation. And he’s dead. Thanks to you blowing up BLI and SCARECROW. And according to the hospital’s regulations, only someone who is authorized can pull that. So… until I find someone who can do it or until I change the regulations, then you boys are stuck with your sad emotions.”

Mikey picked his head up. “So what are you going to do with us?”

Gerard looked at him. “You’re staying here.”

I scoffed. “Great. More jail time. Now I really want that lobotomy, so that I won’t know I’m bored.”

Gerard sighed, then looked at me. “Would you rather I kill you?”

“Maybe,” I replied shortly without looking at him.

He stared at me.

“Well, I’m bored, too,” he finally muttered.

“Maybe if you didn’t keep us locked in here, we could go do something fun,” Ray told him in a cheerful tone.

Mikey softly laughed. It was the first time I’d seen him show any emotion on his face, other than the stone cold fix of his jaw.

“I think I’ll go visit Leya instead. She’s probably more fun. More reactive,” Gerard smirked.

I stood up quick. “If you fucking touch her—”

Gerard giggled. “What are you gonna do, Frank? Break out? Rescue her again? You can’t save her all the time. It’s about time you learned that the hard way.”

I said nothing in return, I just scowled and sat back down.

“That’s all it takes for me to get a reaction out of you?” Gerard raised his eyebrows. “Threaten Leya? Why is she so important to you? Why is she even here at all?” He narrowed his eyes. “You were supposed to leave her at Sweetwater. And now you’re here, sleeping in the same bed, all four of you a happy family.”

The bitterness with which he said that… I think a light bulb just turned on.

“Oh my god… You’re jealous of her,” I scoffed. Then I laughed. “That’s why you’ve been zeroing in on her! You’re jealous!”

Gerard frowned. “I’m not jealous. To be jealous would require me to—”

“Feel something?” Mikey interjected.

Gerard narrowed his eyes and his cheeks grew rosy. This was a bit incredible.

“I’m not feeling anything!” Gerard shouted.

Ray choked out a laugh.

Gerard closed his eyes. “I don’t feel anything. And Leya doesn’t mean anything. She’s just the easiest person to get a reaction out of, and therefore, the easiest to break. She’s the most vulnerable. And she’s also your vulnerability. That makes her the perfect target.”

“She’s not as easy to break as you think,” Mikey said as he looked at his knees.

Gerard breathed out a laugh. “Maybe not. But that just presents a bigger challenge, and you all know I love a challenge.”

“Yeah, well, so does our girl,” Ray retaliated with a proud smile.

Gerard frowned at him. “Tell me one thing that I just don’t understand. I know we agreed to go visit her after we got Grace, but was it really necessary to recruit her help?”

“Leya came after us. Not the other way around,” Mikey told him. He looked a lot better now. The color back in his face. “And she’s done a hell of a job in dismantling BL/ind so far. Not to mention, she saved me from you. So yeah, I’d say she’s pretty necessary at this point.”

Gerard kept his eyes narrowed and pursed his lips. “Well, sooner or later, she’s going to come after you, and then I’ll have her in a trap like a little mouse and she won’t be able to do any more damage.”

“She won’t come after us. She’s not that stupid,” I said. At least I hope she’s not…

“Either way, I’ve got her trapped, either in hiding or here, where you three are. She can’t do anything on her own, and she has no one to help her now that she’s separated from everyone who could.”

“You really believe that?” I asked with a laugh.

Gerard glared at me. “Yeah.”

“Then you’re an idiot,” I laughed again. “And you know what? I think she’s an even better planner than you.”

“If she’s so great, why didn’t you four just take off from Battery City after you murdered the Director?” Gerard muttered with his arms crossed.

I narrowed my eyes. “Because we thought we were getting our best friend back. Didn’t know he’d turned into such a boring asshole.”

Gerard’s mouth tightened.

“Yeah, if we knew you were going to be this much of an asshat, we would have just picked up Frank, then went home,” Mikey chimed in.

“You too, Mikes?” Gerard asked, looking offended.

“Leya  _is_ much more fun company, so why would we stick around for this version of you?” Ray added with a grin.

I was trying my hardest to keep in a smile.

“Right… Well…” Gerard awkwardly started as he stood up. “You’re never going to see Leya again and I’m going to make sure of it. There’s just so many ways to do that… where do I even begin?”

He smirked and finally left us.

“Interesting turn of events,” I noted with a raise of my eyebrows.

“What if he does something to Leya?” Mikey worriedly asked.

“He won’t,” I answered.

“What makes you so sure?” Mikey asked.

“Because deep down, Gerard really likes Leya,” Ray told him. “And he’s jealous of her.”

I started giggling.

Mikey still looked concerned. “…And?”

“And that means he cares! And if he cares…” I continued.

“Then he can feel…” Ray finished.

“And if he can feel…” I said again, with a grin.

“Then… maybe the effects of that drug might wear off?” Mikey asked.

“Maybe,” I answered. “That’s a big maybe, though.”

“What’s important is that we know Gerard’s not completely gone yet,” Ray added. “That means there’s hope.”

Mikey put his face in his hands. “I wish there was something we could do… Instead of just sit here and wait for our fates!”

“Leya will do something,” I said.

“I thought you said she wouldn’t come?” Mikey protested.

“I did,” I nodded. “And I really don’t think she is going to come.”

Ray looked to me with an imploring expression.

“She’ll find out something else,” I said. “She will…”

Mikey looked at me skeptically. “I wish she wasn’t alone… Especially right now,” he sighed.

I smiled at him to try and give him a bit of comfort. “She’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, and she’ll still have Ali—”

“Shh!” Mikey shushed Ray. “Be careful about what you say here.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Ray apologized.

“It’s okay. But yeah, you’re right…” Mikey still looked a bit sad.

“The girl’s a survivalist,” I assured Mikey with a tap on his knee. “If anyone can make it through this, she can. Even if we don’t…”

Ray and Mikey both looked over at me, giving me looks of apprehension.

“So… do you think Gerard’s going to give us any lunch today, or did we piss him off too bad?” Ray asked.

Mikey and I laughed. Thank god I’m not here alone.

Hang in there, Leya. 


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to Leya POV
> 
> this chapter might be a bit triggering for anyone uncomfortable with knives or wrist/hand cuts. There is no self harm in here, but if anything even related to that makes you uncomfortable, proceed with caution and let me know if i need to summarize this chapter for you <3

Over a week had passed and Zack hadn’t returned yet.

Alicia and I had tried to reach out to some rebels to join us in our effort, but no one wanted to risk their lives and/or they didn’t think our plan would work. And at one point, we had to run for our lives because some of the rebels became suspicious about who we were, since we didn’t look like Killjoys and none of them had any clue who we were (even though I had reached out to the same group that Frank took me to that one time.)

For now, It was just me and Alicia. So until Zack came back with more of a gameplan, we’d have to try and go on as normally as we could.

I was a wanted fugitive and Alicia was an escaped fugitive, and neither of us was sure if we were really safe or not. If Gerard knew Alicia was with me, there’s no telling what he would do with her. Alicia was his sister-in-law. And from what Alicia had been telling me this week, they were close. So if he knew she was alive, he might take her and do the same creepy operation he had planned for the guys.

As for me… I was wanted by BLI and the police and my parents—and I was the sole person in Battery City who contained the truth about BLI around her neck. My only goal was to wait for Zack and avoid getting arrested. But the challenge of living was enough on its own.

Alicia and I still needed food and water. Seeing as I was the only one with ray gun experience and it was important that no one knew Alicia was here, I decided to be the one to go out into the city to get us our essentials. So far, I hadn’t been found out yet.

  
  


This morning, I was walking into the main room when I heard a crash from the kitchen.

“Goddamn it,” Alicia hissed out. I moved into the kitchen and saw her looking over a soapy, bleeding hand at the sink.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked as I darted over.

“Fine,” Alicia replied as she closed her eyes, creased in frustration. “I’m just an idiot who broke a plate because I was off daydreaming.”

She rinsed her hand underneath the faucet, but bright red blood kept seething out from the tender part of her fingers.

“Do we have any band-aids here?” I asked as I looked down at it.

“Mikey had a first-aid kit somewhere…” Alicia offered.

I nodded and left the kitchen as Alicia stuck her hand in her mouth to apply pressure to the cuts.

This is Mikey’s apartment. Surely, he should have some type of medical stuff here.

I first looked in the bathroom in the tiny cabinet underneath the sink, and only found a bag with a few cotton balls and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Then I found a small plastic box that was Mikey’s first aid kit. The only problem is that when I opened it up, there was hardly anything left inside of it.

I should have known… Mine, Frank’s and Mikey’s injuries after we ambushed BLI pretty much required the entire contents of the kit. Now there were only a few cotton balls and one packet of antibiotic gel left in there.

“It’s not much,” I told Alicia as she sat at the kitchen table. “But maybe you can put the gel on your fingers for now.”

She took the packet with her uninjured hand and looked back at me. “Thanks.”

“I need to go to the store to buy some actual supplies. I’ll be back soon,” I said as I went over to the main room.

“Wait,” Alicia protested, making the chair skid as she stood up. “You’re gonna go out there just for band-aids?”

“You need something besides cotton balls,” I argued. “And besides, it’s always a good idea to have medical supplies on us. Especially in case something more serious happens to us.”

“You want me to go with you?” Alicia asked as she gave me a careful stare.

“No, of course not,” I replied. “Especially when your hand’s bleeding—there’s germs everywhere outside!”

Alicia stared at me and laughed. “You sound just like Mikey.”

I made a sad smile. “I guess… he’s rubbed a bit of his worrywart tendencies on me.”

Alicia maintained a gentle grin. “Yeah… he’s like that.”

We were quiet for a couple seconds.

I cleared my throat. “So… I’ll be back soon. Just sit tight!”

  
  


The nearest convenience store was only a few minutes’ walk away from the apartment, but it was still risky to even get out of the apartment. Eyes and ears are everywhere, and SCARECROW guards patrol even in the daytime.

So as usual, I wore a hoodie and put the hood up, but not so much that I obscured my face. There’s a fine line between casual stealth and being conspicuous. If I was completely cloaked, then that would just make me stand out among all the square people of Battery City. But this is casual enough. The most important thing about blending in on the street was to not make eye contact with anyone and keep my eyes forward.

The sky was gray with smog as usual, and the city seemed quiet this late morning. Not too many people were out and about. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not.

I made my way to the convenience store without trouble and found myself a first aid kit quickly. Zack had left me some money before he went back to SCARECROW, so Alicia and I could provide for ourselves for a couple more weeks before we had to come up with another way to make money or procure essentials.

It made me think about Frank, how he had been saving for all of us, and how that had been a looming problem, giving us a sort of time limit to get Gerard back. We had barely talked about it at all, but the idea of going back to the Zones without Gerard was something both Frank and I had been considering—my only opposition was that I still needed to find Krys.

Sometimes I wish we had just left. But then… we never would have got Alicia out of prison.

She was worth it.

“Next,” an automated robot voice called out from the register, breaking me from my thoughts.

I paid the clerk at the counter and was turning around to leave when the door beeped electronically.

I kept walking toward the exit, not making eye contact with whoever had stepped inside.

“Hello, Leya,” the person told me. The voice all too familiar.

I finally glanced over to get a good look and—oh shit. I froze and felt a chill go up my spine.

It was Gerard.

He’s wearing a black suit, waistcoat, and tie; his black hair neatly combed; his pale face poised into a graceful smile; his greenish eyes calmly focused on me. That’s why I hadn’t recognized him at first. It was just so strange seeing him well-put together. And in a suit, of all things.

I swallowed hard and took a half second to consider how fast I could move past him to get out of here without bringing too much attention to myself.

He kept walking so I tried to side-step him and walk out, but of course that didn’t work.

“Relax,” Gerard said as he caught my arm in a firm grip.

My throat was dry, my heart was racing, and I could feel myself start to sweat as I stared over at him. It was bewildering to feel his hand on my arm again. He’s alive. And of course, I’ve known that. But to feel him, to be this close to him, face to face, to know that this is real, that this is Gerard—it made me shudder again.

“Pretty hard to relax when you’re a psychopath who shot me, arrested his best friends, and even his own brother,“ I finally replied.

“Do you really think I’d do anything to you right now?” Gerard softly asked, giving me this heartfelt look.

I looked around the shop. No one else seemed to appear perturbed, although I could feel the apprehension, all eyes on me.

I became hyper-aware of his grip on me again, and the fact that it was so tight made me question his words. But then again, he’s been like this with me before… and I hate to even think it, but there’s something oddly… familiar to me about it. Familiar in the sense that this feels almost normal, and that’s such a fucked up thing to think.

I creased my brow. “Go ahead and arrest me.”

Gerard furrowed his brow at me. “Who says I’m here to arrest you?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You only ordered your agents to arrest me.”

Gerard curved his lips into a smile and breathed out a laugh. “Right… You’re always so sharp. I forgot how hard it was for you to take a joke.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

Gerard cleared his throat and sighed as he tugged on my arm. “Come with me. I’ve got something to show you.”

Come with him, as if I really had a choice.

He pulled me along and we exited the convenience store, making the door beep again.

After we got out on the street, I wrenched my arm out of his grip and stood back from him.

Gerard creased his brow and stared at me with a solemn fix of his jaw.

I was still trying to get my heart rate under control, and I swallowed.

Gerard blinked, then a smirk appeared on his lips. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

I blinked in confusion. I honestly couldn’t remember if he had ever made me any promises.

“Why?” was all I replied.

“Why what?” Gerard asked.

I huffed in a breath before answering. “What are you doing, going after me but not arresting me?”

“I don’t want to arrest you,” Gerard told me with a raise of his eyebrows. “Come on.” He held out his palm.

I creased my brow as I looked from his open hand to his face. I had half a mind to run straight back to the apartment. The other half of my mind was curious.

“I’m not going to hold your hand,” I sneered. “Just tell me what this is all about.”

Gerard retreated his arm and snorted. “I’m going to show you something. You’ll like it.”

What on earth could he mean?

Gerard lurched forward and linked his elbow under mine. He sent a toothy grin to me. “Lighten up! You’ll be okay with me.”

I raised my eyebrows at that, but followed anyway.

I figured I really didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t exactly go running back to the apartment to lead him to Alicia. And the fact that he showed up right to the store that I was at was proof enough that he knew how to track me down.

We walked only a few blocks, elbows linked, until we got to the front of some restaurant called d'Arc.

“Go ahead,” Gerard said as he held open the glass door.

I narrowed my eyes at him as I walked in, expecting it to be some kind of SCARECROW trap. But It really was a restaurant with low-lit lanterns, warm, burgundy-colored walls, leather booths, antique-looking paintings, host counters in the front, and classy string instrumental music..

Gerard closed the door behind him and took me by the elbow again, leading me to a corner table with a white tablecloth, what looked like real roses in a glass vase and chairs with leather plush seats.

Gerard reached for a chair and pulled it out. “Go ahead and take a seat.”

I pursed my lips and walked to the other side of the table and sat down in the other chair.

Gerard briefly closed his eyes and laughed. Then he sat down.

“Always so gutsy,” he remarked.

I awkwardly placed my newly bought first aid kit on one edge of the table, then looked around me, noting all the different nicely-dressed yuppies in there, staring over at us. Of course it was unusual to see the SCARECROW General with a disheveled teenager (though the teenage part is very nearly over).

I felt severely underdressed in my zip up hoodie and jeans and sneakers. Gerard fit right in, with his fancy suit and his shiny black shoes, and even his tie, and the way his collar wasn’t too tidy, but creased in a relaxed way. His hair was slightly pushed back across his forehead, gracefully held in place with gel, it looked like. So different from the straggly-haired, dirty guy I met five months ago. But the look actually suited him. When Frank wore a suit, he looked uncomfortable and it was slightly ill-fitted, but Gerard filled out this suit, his shoulders emphasized, the white dress-shirt making him look a bit elegant instead of frumpy.

“Here,” Gerard handed me a menu folder. “Get anything you want.”

I bent my brow.

Gerard slowly blinked at me. “Seriously, get anything you want. I’m treating us.”

I tilted my head and kept my eyebrows raised.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you?” Gerard asked me with a purse of his lips.

My stomach growled just in time for that. I placed a palm on my abdomen as I blushed.

Gerard laughed, his eyes crinkling into that full smile I knew him best for. “Come on, get anything. I’ll make sure they get it out quick, too.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Is it wrong for me to treat one of my friends to brunch?” Gerard asked.

A waiter came over and asked us our drink orders before I could answer. Gerard got us champagne, even though I insisted on only having cranberry juice for myself.

“Speaking of friends, how are Frank, Mikey, and Ray?” I asked as I placed my elbows on the table.

Gerard blinked once. “Oh. Those guys… they’re fine.”

I pursed my lips. “You take them to fancy French restaurants, too?”

“First of all, this is a French-inspired restaurant—they still have American style food here,” Gerard started with a grin. “And second of all, I gave those guys exactly what they needed. It’s you I need to spend a bit more time on.”

Okay… I didn’t understand any of that.

I ended up getting myself french toast with fruit on the side, half to spite Gerard for taking me to an embarrassing French restaurant and half because I haven’t had French toast in three years. Gerard got a steak and eggs breakfast.

“Is this weird?” Gerard asked as we waited for our food.

“You’re seriously asking that?” I scoffed.

“Okay, it’s weird,” Gerard replied with a nonchalant stare. “You know, the guys really are safe. I haven’t killed them.”

“Killing them isn’t the worst thing you could do, though,” I replied.

Gerard crookedly smiled. “Of course you see it that way.”

“I know what it’s like to have your emotions ripped away from you against your will. How everything is dull, gray, and nothing matters. It is a fate worse than death.” I glared at Gerard.

He quirked his mouth into a grimace. “That’s not what happened to me. You think that’s what it’s like? I feel, Leya. I can laugh, I can feel content, I can even feel a bit annoyed at times. Completely useless, those emotions are, but I wouldn’t describe my experience as dull. It’s… liberating. To not dwell too much on emotions, to let things pass by easily. To never feel sorrow. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“No,” I answered with a flat face.

Gerard raised his eyebrows. “Well, you’re just impractical. How have you been doing, by the way?”

“Oh, you care?” I sarcastically asked.

“Of course I care. You managed to get out of the sewers and kill a couple of my agents. And you’ve managed to evade them for over a week. It’s impressive. I’d like to know how you are getting on psychologically.” He put his hand under his cheek and gave me a vibrant stare.

“I’m fine,” was all I replied as I kept a solemn expression on my face.

Gerard nodded. “So you’re happy?”

I glared at him.

“Valid question,” he pointedly told me. “If you’re unhappy, I have a way to fix that.”

I scoffed. “By brainwashing me?”

Gerard sipped out of his glass of champagne. “You can drink some, you know.”

“I’m not twenty-one,” I bitterly replied as I crossed my arms.

Gerard laughed. “It’s okay. I’m the ruler of this city, Leya. You can bend the rules with me.”

“Perfectly fine with my cranberry juice, thanks,” I replied as I took a sip from my red drink, feeling the refreshing ice hit my lips.

“Honestly, though, let’s make a deal. I want you to be happy,” Gerard continued.

I put my drink down. “If you want me to be happy, give me back my friends and get out of Battery City.”

“You just got right down to it, didn’t you?” Gerard laughed.

“I don’t like smalltalk,” I remarked.

Gerard sighed. “There is more than one avenue to happiness, Leya. And you can achieve it with peace.”

We were interrupted by our food arriving. And then Gerard refused to talk until we were both done eating, which took us nearly twenty minutes.

I was only able to eat one toast and half of another. My body wasn’t equipped to deal with this much food in one sitting after a whole year of practically starving.

“Isn’t this nice?” Gerard asked me after wiping his mouth with a serviette. “Aren’t you comfortable?”

“Not particularly,” I muttered.

Gerard scoffed. “Well, if I wasn’t here, wouldn’t this have been a nice comfortable treat for you?”

“I guess.”

Gerard pulled his lips into a smile. “If you join me, you can live like this everyday.”

“You think that’s what I want? Brunch at a French restaurant everyday?” I asked with a bitter tone.

Gerard rolled his eyes. “I’m showing you the life you can have, Leya. If you cooperated with me, you wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. You could have nice things. No more starving, no more running, you can even have your family again.”

“At what cost?” I asked. “A life devoid of emotion, devoid of true love and affection between everyone I cared about? That’s not a life at all.”

“So pain, suffering, isolation—those are things you would prefer to this?” Gerard asked me. “Tell me, without those people you love in your life, is having full range of emotion really that much of a value?”

I swallowed. “I have the satisfaction of knowing I have ownership over my thoughts and my emotions. That’s enough.”

Gerard was quiet for a few seconds, nodding as if he was taking in what I said. Then he reached across the table and grabbed my hand. He squeezed tight, so I couldn’t pull away if I wanted to. “Leya, be honest: are you scared of me?”

I looked into his wide eyes, noting delight in them.

“No,” I answered.

“You’re not?” he asked with a tilt of his head. “What about now?” He lifted an unused knife from his side of the table and held it over my wrist.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I hissed as I tried to pull away.

He gently placed the cold steel down on my skin. “Do I scare you?”

I swallowed. “No.”

“Not even a little bit?” Gerard asked, slowly gliding the knife on my skin.

I gasped and tried to pull away.

“How about now?” he asked as he dug his nails into my hand.

“Stop it!” I gasped out.

Gerard just smirked at me. “Say it.”

“Say what?” I snapped, as he glided his knife back over my skin, barely gripping it.

“You’re scared.”

“Fine, I’m scared!” I hushed out.

Gerard promptly lifted his knife from my wrist and took his hand off of mine. He curled his mouth into a grin. “There, that was easy. Honesty is the best policy. Remember that!”

I cradled my hand to my chest and assessed my wrist. There were only a couple white marks that barely broke the skin, but he was that close to doing real damage. I was trembling. I wanted to cry. This was the same guy who told me I was worth living, and now he was doing something like threatening to cut my wrist… WHAT THE FUCK.

“You’re not the same person,” I hushed out. “I don’t care what Frank says… this isn’t you!”

Gerard sat back and breathed out a laugh. “You go ahead and keep telling yourself that. Really good at living in denial, you are.”

“No! The old you, would never do something like this to me. Let alone all the fucked up shit you’ve done since you had your head fucked with,” I growled.

“You want me to stop? Then join me,” Gerard told me.

“What?”

“You can still join me. And we won’t be enemies anymore.”

I clenched my jaw. “This is what you were doing—trying to scare me into joining you? What, setting me up and then cornering me like a little rabbit? You think that because you pull some shit like that, because of fear, that that would be enough to make me surrender? Well, I got news for you. You’ll never get me to turn over to your side.”

“Well, if I can’t scare you into working with me, then I can definitely scare you into leaving,” Gerard said as he tapped the table with his fingers.

I creased my brow. “You want me to leave?”

“You’re an absolute nuisance to a system you don’t like,” Gerard replied with an exasperated sigh. “And if the only way I can get you to back off is through inducing fear, or a neurotransmitter transplant, or getting you to willingly work with me—then I will choose either of those avenues to ensure the safety of my city. Whichever is most effective.”

I narrowed my eyes. “The city would be better off without you. Without SCARECROW.”

He smirked. “You really believe that? Please, this place would fall into ruin. These people need a ruler. Imagine what this place would be like without one.”

“We didn’t have a ruler in the Zones. We got on just fine,” I said as I crossed my arms.

“We _did_ have a ruler. It was SCARECROW.”

I creased my brow.

Gerard nodded at me. “Think about it. Our purpose in the Zones; hiding from agents, fighting agents—we didn’t exist without SCARECROW. If we didn’t have that, what would we have had?”

“Freedom,” I answered.

“You’re such an idealist,” Gerard groaned as he leaned his chin into his hand.

“Weren’t you an idealist? The world is beautiful, because we make it beautiful by living in it? What about your daughter, huh? Do you just not care about her anymore?”

“No, I don’t. Because every memory with my daughter was emotional, and that’s the part of my brain that got fused out nearly to Oblivion. Even if I wanted to care about her, I can’t,” Gerard told me with a straight face.

I shook my head. “And you don’t see a problem with that?”

“It doesn’t feel like a problem. And as long as it doesn’t feel like that, then I’m ace.” He grinned, showing off those childish teeth again.

I shook my head slowly. “One day this is all going to end… You’re not going to have a choice but to face it.”

“Frank already gave me this speech. I don’t care,” Gerard told me with an upward flick of his eyebrows.

“I know you don’t care. But I want you to know… when that time comes, I’ll forgive you.” I swallowed. “Despite all the terrible things you’ve said and done to us all. I will forgive you.”

Gerard’s eyes widened and his lips parted.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” I said as I stood up.

“What about a box, Leya?” Gerard asked as he looked up at me.

“No thanks,” I said as I picked up my first aid kit.

“You do know that no matter where you go, I’ll find you, right?” Gerard asked with a coy half-smile. “And you will never be able to touch SCARECROW.”

“I’ll take my chances,” I replied as I moved away from the table.

“Done a lot of growing up while I’ve been away, haven’t you?” Gerard asked me, looking a bit amused.

I turned back to him. “I didn’t need a lobotomy to make me stop caring, Gerard. I just had to lose everything important to me in my life. Which means now I’ve got nothing left to lose.”

“Nothing to lose? Even your friend Zack?” Gerard asked me with the hints of a smirk around his lips.

My throat grew dry but I fought every impulse to show any nervous ticks. “He’s not my friend. He was, but he changed. He tried to kill me, because he’s one of your soldiers now.”

“But he’s still alive…” Gerard told me with a precocious stare. “Why did you spare him?”

I cleared my throat. “Unlike you, Gerard, I don’t hurt or attempt to kill my former friends.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, then turned around and left the restaurant. He didn’t follow, which was surprising. And even as I passed a SCARECROW agent patrolling outside, they paid no heed of me.

I sped up as I walked down the street, hoodie back up over my head, first-aid kit now tucked into my sweater.

  
  


  
  


Even though I had put up a brave face to Gerard, I was paranoid as hell.

Gerard knew how to find me. And if I lead him back to the apartment… He’ll probably discover Alicia. I can’t let that happen. He already said he knew where to find me, though…

I decided to go through back alleys anyway, to throw off anyone who might be watching me. I was turning down a particularly dark alley when someone lunged out from the wall and grabbed me.

“Ahh!” I gasped as I tried to pry off their hands by batting them with my first-aid kit.

“Shh! It’s me!” hushed out Zack’s voice. I looked up and indeed, it was Zack in his SCARECROW uniform again. No helmet on, though.

“Zack?” I questioned. “What are you doing here? You could get caught! Gerard is just around the—”

“It’s alright,” he whispered.

“Oh, really?” I made a point of looking down at his arms, which were still pinning me against the wall.

“Oh, right,” he softly exhaled as he backed off and let me go. “Sorry. It’s just…”

“I’m being watched,” I finished.

Zack’s eyes lowered. “Yeah.”

“I just had lunch with Gerard. He wants to make sure I don’t do anything to his organization,” I told Zack. “So he’s sending people to follow me. How is our plan going to work now?”

Zack glanced over his shoulder then grabbed my arm again. “Come on… We have to keep walking.”

I looked behind us, but no one was there. Still, couldn’t be too sure, I guess. I looked back at Zack. There was something different about him. He looked…tired. A bit scared, maybe. His face was pale. His pupils dilated.

“So… did you find out anything interesting about Gerard’s plans?” I asked him quietly.

“Sort of…” He cast his eyes down.

“What? What is it?” I asked, sensing something wrong.

Zack stopped walking and herded the both of us behind a dumpster. “They’re going to start putting us on new pills. The chems that Gerard is on.”

“How do you know?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

“They told us,” Zack told me, his blue eyes looking sad. “After graduation, we’re supposed to start taking those in small dosages. And… it’s mandatory regulation. If we fight it, well—let’s just say that no one quits SCARECROW.

“But you’ll be okay, right?”

Zack gulped. “I don’t know.”

“Well, did you find out where they’re producing them? That way we can destroy the source, just like we said we would from the beginning,” I suggested.

“He’s already got a large shipment in,” Zack murmured.

I gulped. “But only a small amount, right? As long as we destroy the rest of it, we’ll be fine.”

Zack sighed. “Listen, you need to get out of here. As long as you’re being watched and I’m a SCARECROW agent, it’s going to be near impossible to carry out our plan. So save yourself. Get out of Battery City.”

I creased my brow. “That’s it? You’re already giving up?”

“There’s not much I can do in my position. But I can protect you still. Get out of Battery City. Don’t ever come back.”

“That’s not going to solve anything,” I argued.

“Leya. Leave Battery City. Please.” The circles around Zack’s eyes underscored the look of concern he was giving me.

I furrowed my brow. “If you think it’s safer out there than here, then—”

Zack lurched forward and grabbed my arms again. “Please tell me you get what I’m saying here,” he hushed out, breath hot on my ear.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion.

“Gerard wants you gone. _So leave_ ,” he whispered, then pulled away and gave me a raise of his eyebrows.

I blinked and I caught a smile from appearing on my face. I got it.

I narrowed my eyes. “Coward.”

Zack pursed his lips, and I could tell it was an attempt to hide his smile.

“I’m doing what’s best for the both of us,” he continued in a solemn tone.

“So what’s best is giving up?” I retaliated, playing along.

“It’ll be better this way,” he said, looking straight ahead.

I shook my head. “I can’t believe you’re putting SCARECROW first. You’re not who I thought you were.”

“Things change,” Zack replied, holding his jaw tight.

“Well, I’m not going to leave just because you say so.”

“I’ll make sure you do.”

“Asshole.”

“Stubborn idiot.”

Zack and I met eyes, and I wanted to smile so much. He was giving me an amused look as well.

“When I come back, you better be gone,” he told me in a stern voice.

“Or what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll drag you out there myself.”

“You can try,” I smirked.

Zack turned around, his eyes looking a bit wistful. “So this is goodbye.”

He turned back down the alley and walked without looking back.

A thought just came into my head. An important one.

“Zack, wait!” I cried out as I ran over to him.

His eyes widened as he looked down at me with a raised eyebrow. “So much for the performance!” he hushed out to me.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” I whispered out. “But there’s something you need to know.”

He blinked at me and stared intently. “What?”

“In the research lab, we watched this video and I remember the Director mentioned about testing the chemical that’s in Gerard’s brain on students. But it didn’t work. And she was going to wait until graduation to administer it…”

“Why would she have waited, if it didn’t work?” Zack asked.

“Because the supplements counteract the effects of the new chemical,” I whispered. “Something about testosterone… Anyway, the point was that after graduation, you wouldn’t be on the supplements anymore. So there would be nothing to counteract the new chemical.”

“…What are you saying?” Zack asked, looking at me intently.

I blinked as it clicked finally. “What would happen if we gave Gerard supplements?”

Zack’s brow relaxed. “You think it could block the effect of whatever is going on in his head?”

“Yes!” I replied a bit too loudly. “I mean, yes.”

Zack looked to the side in thought. “I mean, what were the exact details of this research? How much was administered of the new chemical and how much of our supplements counteracted it?”

“I don’t know!” I frustratedly hushed out. “But it’s an answer, right? If we can somehow get your supplements into Gerard’s brain, or bloodstream, or whatever—maybe he can be cured.”

Zack stared at me. “How are we supposed to do that?”

“You’re the one who’s close to him right now. Figure out a way to do it.”

Zack’s eyebrows shot up. “Leya, that’s easier said than done!”

I sighed. “You’re an elite student, Zack. I’m sure you’ll figure out something.”

Zack swallowed then looked down. “Alright. If I see you here tomorrow, you’ll be arrested,” he called out in a loud voice. “You understand me?”

“Got it,” I answered.

Zack nodded. He left for real this time, and I left running in the opposite direction.

  
  



	16. Chapter 16

When I got back to the apartment, Alicia was sitting in the living room reading an old comic issue of Spider-man.

She raised her head and gave me an alert look, a slight smile on her lips. “Hey, you alright? It’s been hours. Not that I mind, just—”

“I saw Gerard,” I interrupted.

Alicia’s eyes widened and she sat more upright. “You saw him? Where?”

“I mean, he found me. I had…lunch with him?” I ran a hand through my hair and sat down next to Alicia, finally putting down the first-aid kit.

“What?” she asked me, creasing her brow, making her already-arched eyebrows look angry.

I told Alicia how I had run into Gerard and all about our conversation at the restaurant.

“I’m kind of amazed that he didn’t do anything to you,” she said as she raised her eyebrows.

“Besides nearly cutting me, no…. He just wants me out of the picture,” I muttered. “That’s why he’s going so far to try and scare me, having all his guards keep tabs on me, including Zack.”

“Well, when is Zack supposed to be back? Maybe he can help,” Alicia suggested as she began to wrap her cut fingers with band-aids.

“I ran into Zack right after and he says they’re going to put all the students on the same pills—the same chemical that’s in Gerard’s brain. We only have like two weeks before that happens. And Gerard knows we were friends… it’s only a matter of time before Gerard figures out what we’re up to, or Zack gets brainwashed….”

“Did Zack say anything about Mikey and the others?” Alicia asked.

“No, I forgot to ask…” I sighed. “But I have a feeling they’re okay. If Gerard is going to lengths to keep me away, then that must mean that they’re still there for the rescuing.”

“Hmm,” Alicia said as she put a hand to her mouth. “So what now?”

“Gerard wants me gone,” I answered. “If I leave Battery City and make it known, he’ll be relieved. Giving him a sense of calm. And then that’s when we’ll strike.”

“So you’re going to actually leave Battery City?” Alicia asked.

“Well, we need recruits for our army, anyway. If I go into the Zones and gather an army, we can all storm Battery City together—take BLI down as a united front. Gerard wouldn’t be expecting it.”

“Wouldn’t he, though? I mean, does he really believe you’d just not fight back?” Alicia questioned.

“Well, he thinks I want to save the guys. He has no idea about my plans for the pharmaceutical plant,” I answered. “And no, I really don’t think he’d expect a full army. I don’t think a group that big has ever made an attempt to storm Battery City.”

The closest thing that I have seen was the battle at Sweetwater against Korse and his small army.

“So when do you plan on leaving?” Alicia asked.

“As soon as possible,” I answered as I stood up. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”

“Hey, you’re not going on your own. We stick together, alright?” Alicia told me as she stood up, too, towering over me.

I swallowed. “Alicia, if I don’t make it… someone needs to be able to do something in the city. I don’t trust Zack. He’s in too vulnerable of a position. Zack doesn’t even know you’re here, and for a reason—he’s not safe. You’re the only one who can do anything if we fail.”

Alicia sent me a hard look. “I don’t like this. I’d rather just go with you to the Zones.”

“But—”

Alicia groaned. “You said so yourself! What’s the point of living in Battery City if there’s nothing here for you? Right now, you’re all I’ve got. I know we haven’t known each other long but… You’re the only new friend I’ve made in three years. My only friend right now. And… you don’t really have anyone else right now, either. Let me be there for you.”

I stared at her, enthralled by her compassion. She wanted to help me, even though she had zero obligation to. And going out to the Zones—which was something she was scared of three years ago.

“Okay,” I finally answered.

“There. Was that so hard?” Alicia laughed.

I smiled. “Thanks.”

  
  


 

  
  


That night, we made our way to the western gate of the city.

As expected, there were two agents guarding it. I wondered how this would work… if I was leaving Battery City, and they knew I was me—would they just let me go since that’s what Gerard wants?

Another problem that I hadn’t thought about before was Alicia being found out by BLI. They knew I was alone, or so they thought. What would they make of Alicia? Would they relay that info to Gerard?

“I think we’re going to have to take these guys out,” I whispered to Alicia as we looked out from the edge of a building.

“What? Why?” she asked.

“Because if they know I have someone else with me, that probably changes things. They’re going to want to know who you are, and if Gerard finds out—then… who knows what’ll happen?”

“Well, what are you going to do? Shoot them?” Alicia asked.

I gulped. “That might be my only option…”

Wait, when had I become so accustomed to murder? That’s what this was. It wasn’t like playing a virtual video game and shooting down computer generated drones. These agents were people.

“I’ll be right behind you, whatever you decide to do,” Alicia told me as she gently touched my shoulder.

“I have an idea…” I whispered. “Get around to the other side of this building. Take my gun.”

“What—”

“Trust me, you’ll be fine. All you have to do is fire off the ray gun a few times to make the guard notice.”

“What’ll you do?” Alicia asked me in a low voice.

“Take him down my own way,” I replied with a smirk.

Alicia nodded and walked across the alleyway onto the opposite side of the street. From this vantage point, if she stayed where she was, the guard would have no choice but to check it out.

Ten seconds later, Alicia let off a few bright lasers, and as predicted, the two agents became alert and raised their guns. They edged toward the source of the lasers, and now they had their backs to me.

I took in a sharp breath before I ran forward with all my speed, arms at my sides, palms slicing through the air. I lunged onto the shorter guard and grabbed onto their throat. The guard swayed and groaned out as I kept my legs twisted around his torso, and he tried to grab at me. The other guard froze, torn between going after the lasers and going after me.

I sent a palm strike to the temple of the guard I had pinned, and he began to drop. I hopped off of his back just in time to save myself from a fall as he thudded to the ground.

“Hey!” the other guard yelled as he approached me.

I edged backward rapidly—and then I saw Alicia come forward in a run towards the guard. I wanted to tell her no, but then the guard had no idea she was even coming.

“Leya, it’s me!” the guard lifted his visor and revealed himself to be Zack.

My eyes widened as I took that in—while in the same second Alicia pounced on him and grabbed him into a chokehold.

“I’ve got him, Leya! You finish it!” she gritted out.

“Wait—stop!” I cried out.

“I’m not gonna kill him,” Alicia defended as she gripped Zack tight against her.

“N-no—I mean—that’s Zack!” I cried out.

“Zack?” Alicia repeated with a crease in her brow.

“Yeah,” Zack gargled out.

“Oh. Sorry,” Alicia politely said as she took her arms from him. Zack lurched forward and took in deep breaths as he grabbed at his throat.

He spun around, and croaked, “Who are you?”

Alicia looked to me nervously. I looked to Zack.

“She’s a friend. And that’s all you need to know,” I told him. “Are you alright?”

Zack stood up straight. “I’m fine. You two are really… serious about getting out of Battery City, huh? I thought you were going to be by yourself.”

Zack had addressed me with that last statement. I sighed, “Yeah, well. I have company. And now it appears that we are set to get out of here.”

Alicia walked around Zack and came to my side. “You good?” she asked. “That other guy was kind of heavy-set. Didn’t know you had that in you.” I could see the dimples of her smile even in the streetlights. She looked proud.

“I’ve had a bit of practice,” I bashfully replied. “Good job to you, too.”

“Ahem!” Zack cleared his throat.

“Umm, right!” I said. “Do you have to like, escort us or something now?”

“No,” Zack replied as he crossed his arms. “But you should leave before my buddy here wakes up.”

I nodded. “How did you know we’d be here?”

“It’s where I went to take the Borderlands test. Probably the safest route out of the city. I had faith in your common sense.”

I smiled at Zack. “Thanks.”

“You still have my badge with you?” Zack asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good. In case you don’t come back before… well, you know… you’re gonna need it,” he told me with a purse of his lips.

I tensed my brow. “Hey, you should come with us. You can leave all of this.”

“And then what?” Zack asked.

“And then… you don’t have to work for SCARECROW anymore!”

Zack sighed as he put his hands on his hips. “Leya, what about my family? What about everyone else here who is still suffering? What about your friends?”

I gently smiled. “You still think we can save them?

“Yeah.”

I nodded. “Good.”

“Hey, I’ll figure out something by the time you get back. You know, about that thing we talked about earlier concerning Gerard,” Zack told me before looking at both me and Alicia.

“Yeah. Okay,” I responded with another nod. “Guess I’ll see you when I see you then.”

I was about to turn away when Zack stepped forward.

“Leya…”

“Yeah?” I asked. Zack looked like he was about to burst from not saying something,

“…Good luck,” was all he exhaled.

I nodded and smiled. “Yeah, you too.”

Alicia and I turned again and I led her down the opening of the tunnel that is a pathway to the Borderlands.

  
  


As we went down the ladder with flashlights, I saw several spiders and other bugs, but I was glad to have Alicia here with me in the dark.

Once we got down to the ground, Alicia bumped my elbow.

“Hey, your agent friend was cute. At least from what I could see in the dark. Are you two…”

“No,” I answered, feeling my cheeks burn. “We’re just friends.”

“You would make a cute couple,” Alicia cheerfully added.

“I don’t know… Can we just focus on getting out of here?” I asked with a nervous laugh.

Alicia smirked at me. “Okay…”

We walked for what seemed like an hour down this darkness. It was cold, and Alicia and my flashlights made this place look creepy, the blackness around the orbs of light looking extra ominous.

Without speaking, Alicia and I grabbed each other’s hand and laced fingers as we walked down here. I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s scared.

“How much farther do we have to go?” Alicia asked.

“I’m not sure… I think we’re almost at the end, though,” I answered as I walked along in front.

In about twenty minutes, we could see some sort of light coming through in the distance. That had to be the opening.

“I think we’re almost there!” I cheered to Alicia.

“Good, I can’t wait to get out of here!” she replied.

We both started skipping towards the light we saw, though as we approached closer and closer, I could see a vague shadow moving against the opening.

“Hold up, I think someone’s there,” I whispered to Alicia. We slowed to a walk again and crept along the wall, turning off our flashlights.

As we got closer, we could see the shadow in clear view and it looked like someone in SCARECROW agent armor.

“What do we do?” Alicia asked.

“Just walk as silently as we can,” I whispered as I began to tip-toe along the wall.

As we approached the end, it was clear now that there was someone in SCARECROW agent uniform.

I held my gun close. I hope I don’t need to use it, it’s only one soldier after all.

“Who goes there?” he suddenly asked. “I know someone’s out there.”

“Should we just go forward?” Alicia whispered to me.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

We edged closer, and the agent crept closer. Suddenly a bright light blinded us, and I raised my hands on instinct, curling an arm around Alicia behind me.

It was a couple seconds and nothing had happened yet.

“Leya!” the agent seemed to excitedly call out.

I raised a palm in front of my eyes so I could see beyond the light. The agent turned his flashlight away from me and lit up his face.

Long dark hair, that toothy grin, and those shining dark eyes—it was Show Pony!

“Pony?!” I blurted out as I blinked.

“Yes!” He dropped his helmet and ran over to me, then gripped me in his arms and hugged me tight. “Where have you been, girly?!”

“Pony, you’re walking!” I exclaimed as I buried my chin in his shoulder.

“Yeah, well it’s been a couple months!” he giggled with a light push on my shoulder.

“You know this guy?” Alicia asked as she came up, still looking a bit anxious.

I turned back to her. “Oh, right. Alicia, this is Show Pony. One of our Killjoy friends. And Pony, this is Alicia. Mikey’s wife.”

Pony’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped a bit. “You’re Alicia?” He came up to her, grabbed her hand, and gave it a gentle peck. “I’ve heard so much about you. I’m really glad to see that you are—well, that you’re here!”

Alicia smiled and awkwardly laughed. I forgot that not everyone wasn’t used to Pony’s eccentrics. “Thanks, I think.”

“Wait a minute,” Pony turned back to me. “Where are Ray and Mikey? Did you ever find Frank?”

His brow furrowed. “And… why are you here?”

I exhaled sharply. “Bit of a long story. How much news have you heard?”

Pony stared at me carefully before answering. “We know Gerard is the new Director and the SCARECROW General. And we know that there were rumors that it was Killjoys who blew up BLI and SCARECROW headquarters.”

I nodded. “Well, that’s all true.”

“So you found Frank?”

“Yeah, we did,” I answered with a sad smile.

Pony wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Well, come on and tell me the whole long story over some tea. You too, Missus Alicia.”

Alicia blinked. “Tea?”

“Hey, Pony—you never said why you’re here,” I told him as I turned to face him. “Or why you’re in this garb.”

Pony’s eyes widened and his faced stretched into a surprised grin. “Oh! Right! D sent me here to do a bit of recon in Battery City. Our usual informants have gone AWOL and considering it’s been a month since y’all left to the Borderlands, we decided it was about time we check in on ya—that is, if we could find you guys.”

“Dr. D actually let you go here by yourself?” I asked.

Pony laughed loudly. “Oh, I wish! The old coot’s still got it hard on me. I actually have some reinforcements. Some faces you’ll even recognize.”

Pony wiggled his eyebrows at me and I raised one in confusion.

“Oh, and Missus Alicia–”

“You can just call me Alicia,” she told him with a chuckle.

“Okay—Alicia—we have tea because that’s like the most abundant good-slash-food product around in the Zones. My boss, Dr. Death Defying, he’s obsessed with tea. So it’s become like a part of my system, now. It’s good for you, though.”

Alicia softly chuckled. “Dr. Death Defying? Sounds like the name of a wrestler.”

“Right… you don’t know about Killjoy names yet, do you?” I asked with a small laugh.

Pony grinned at Alicia. “Looks like there’s a lot you don’t know about. Just know that us Killjoys are good people—your husband and his buddies are also great buddies of mine and our crew. We’re all peace-loving here. Unless you’re a SCARECROW agent, that is.”

We walked along through this cracked building and Show Pony had a small bike with a buggy attached. Alicia rode in the buggy while I held onto Pony on the back of the bike. Slightly less terrifying than riding with Mikey because Pony wasn’t in a rush.

But the memory did make me miss Mikey…

It was a nice drive, the Borderlands quiet, the moon and stars shining down. This place, with its gray, silent, towering ruins shining under the moonlight, was actually kind of beautiful.

We finally arrived to Pony’s hideout, where he said he and his recon team have been holed up for the past two days. It was the same abandoned Italian restaurant Frank had been staying at while he was here in the Borderlands. Except there were lights on. On the inside.

“Heyyy everyone!” Pony cheered out as he walked in first.

Alicia and I followed and I finally got to see who was there. I almost dropped at the sight.

Caelan! Ronnie! Angel Eyes! That scary, wild-haired lady from the Black Widow! And that old guy Snake from Sweetwater! They were all sitting down in two adjacent booths. Angel at one with Ronnie and Caelan, then those other two I didn’t know that well in the other.

“What are you doing here Pony?” the scary lady sneered as she crossed her arms. “I thought you were supposed to be in Battery City by now. Did something happen?”

“Sort of,” Pony said as he sidled out of view to let everyone else see me and Alicia.

Everyone’s eyes widened. Angel stood up. Caelan looked like he’d seen a ghost. The scary lady and the scary gray man looked confused. And Ronnie sprang up from her seat and darted over to me.

“Leya! You’re alive! And here!” Ronnie cried out as she crushed my neck in a hug.

“Ronnie,” I croaked out against her long hair, which draped over my shoulder. “it’s so good to see you!”

“Hey kid, long time no see!” Angel cheered out. His hair was now dyed completely blue.

I walked over to him and hugged him. “Glad to see you!”

Then I looked down at Caelan, who was still seated at the table. He still looked shocked from the sight of me.

“Caelan…” I said with a crooked grin, hoping he’d forgiven me by now. 

“Hi, Leya,” he told me in a small voice, with a tentative grin. His hair was a bit longer now, looking a bit more shaggy. He even had slight traces of stubble on his chin anda battered leather jacket on, pushed up and folded at the elbow. Someone’s grown up a bit.

“You’re the chick who stood up against those Dracs at the Black Widow,” the scary woman with the wild brown-and-blonde hair said. “Good to see ya again. My name’s Jess.” She stood up and held out her hand.

“Hi Jess,” I replied as I shook her hand and smiled. Her grip was really strong and almost hurt. Then I turned to the gray man.

“Hi. I'm—“

“I know who you are. I live in Sweetwater, don’t I?” Snake gruffly told me.

I tilted my head. “Oh, okay… Well, good to see you.”

“Who are _you_?” Ronnie asked Alicia. Alicia’s cheeks grew pink and she nervously ran a hand through her hair.

“Umm, well—“

Pony interrupted, “This is Alicia! Kobra Kid’s wife.”

“Hi, everyone,” she greeted with a smile.

“Kobra Kid?” she then whispered to me.

“Mikey’s Killjoy name,” I told her with a laugh.

Angel moved away from the table and held out an arm. “You ladies should go ahead and have a seat. I’ll fix you something nice to drink.”

Alicia and I moved to go sit down, and I ended up sitting next to Ronnie in the circular booth.

Pony brought up a chair and sat next to the table. “Isn’t this exciting? Friends! New and old!”

“What happened with your mission in Battery City?” Snake bitterly asked him.

Pony’s eyes widened. “Do you not see what I just came in with? Leya was leaving Battery City. She’s been there for over a month. As far as we’re concerned, she is the recon mission coming to us!”

Snake tilted his head and grunted in acceptance.

“So why are you all here?” I asked as I looked from all of them.

Pony cleared his throat and smirked. “So this birdie from Battery City, a scientist chick, she showed up at Dr. D’s out of the blue and said she knew all about what happened with the Fab Four, and she told us about Gerard, and told us about you—she wants help to destroy BLI.”

“A scientist chick?” I questioned.

“Oh, her name was Rina!” Ronnie interjected with a pointed index finger.

“Rina…. “ I exhaled. It makes sense. She ran away… to help us. Wow, I’m sorry for ever doubting you, Rina.

“Yeah, she was something,” Pony wistfully sighed as he bit his lip.

Angel chuckled. “She’s the only woman in the world who didn’t find you charming.”

Pony grinned. “Like I said… She was something…”

“What exactly did she tell you about destroying BLI?” I asked. “And where is she now?”

“She’s probably in Sweetwater by now,” Pony answered with a nonchalant tilt of his head. “To gather troops. She told us where the pharmaceutical processing plant is, gave us schematics and codes—she was like a genius.”

My eyebrows shot up. “That’s great! She’s already like five steps ahead of us!” I turned to Alicia and grinned. Alicia gently smirked in reply.

“What exactly do you mean?” Angel asked with a furrowed brow.

“That’s exactly what we were going to set out to do. We need to put up a fight against Gerard’s army—we need to stop him.”

“So it’s true… He really is the leader of SCARECROW now…” Ronnie remarked with a solemn look.

“Yeah,” I answered with a purse of my lips.

“Hey, whatever happened to Korse?” Pony asked.

“We killed him. Well—destroyed him, more like. Since he was an android,” I answered.

“How did you do it?” Snake asked out of nowhere. I wasn’t aware he was even listening that closely.

I gulped. “Well, Mikey—Kobra Kid—he took an axe and hacked him to pieces.”

Snake chuckled with glee. It was the first time I’ve seen him smile, wrinkles on his face dark and heavy around his mouth. It was creepy.

“That’s probably the best way to do it. Other than light him on fire.”

“Well, we did blow up the SCARECROW building right after, so he probably did burn up in it…” I continued.

Snake laughed and slammed his hand down on the table. “I knew there was a reason everyone liked you!”

I creased my brow.

“Oh, right!” Ronnie’s bright green eyes widened. “They’ve been telling stories all about you! They call you Princess Leya. You know, because of Star Wars. Or sometimes just the Princess, to keep your name safe.”

I bent my eyebrows further. “What? People tell stories? About what?”

“You’re the girl who helped break the Fabulous Killjoys out of jail. Who stood up to Korse. Who stood up to Dracs at the Black Widow. And you’re the one who was crazy enough to go find all of the Fabulous Killjoys after they were presumed dead. And then you went on to destroy BLI headquarters.”

“It’s true,” Angel added as he finished pouring whatever liquid he had prepared for me and Alicia. “I get a lot of people asking me about you.”

“But why? It’s not like I did any of those things by myself,” I answered.

“Because you’re brave,” Caelan finally spoke. “And you never give up, even when it’s a death mission. Your stories bring hope to people.”

I smiled at him.

“She also broke me out of jail,” Alicia added.

Ronnie grinned at me and extended a palm. “See? You’re a hero.”

I wheezed out a laugh. “That’s a bit of an overstatement.”

“Well, whether you like it or not, you’re famous now,” Pony told me with a light touch on my arm.

I raised an eyebrow.

“So… were you ladies planning on heading out anywhere in particular?” Jess asked as she leisurely folded her arms behind her head.

I looked to Alicia. “We just wanted to get more recruits. But it seems like Rina’s already on that…”

“What should we do?” Alicia asked me.

“Well, there’s no rush. Got plenty of supplies and food here. Stock full of booze, a bartender…” Show Pony listed off. “Oh, and we have a portable generator, so that’s how all the electricity works here!”

I smiled. “It probably would be best to wait until we had a formed army before we planned anything. And I can’t go back to Battery City until I have an army.”

“So it’s settled! You’re staying here!” Pony cheered.

  
  


—-

Drinks were had all around, darts were played, and then at some point, the older adults separated from the younger ones, i.e. me, Ronnie and Caelan.

“I just can’t believe you made it on your own so far!” Ronnie exclaimed to me at one point, a bit buzzed. Then she glared over at Caelan. “In partial thanks to this jackass!”

Caelan ducked his head. He had barely been talking all night, and he was awkward around me. Considering the last time we talked, I shut down his romantic advances and he told me I was crazy for chasing ghosts…. well, how does one casually come back from that?

“Have you even apologized yet?” Ronnie drilled as she shouted in her brother’s face.

Caelan turned to me, a flush in his cheeks. “Leya, I’m sorry. I—”

“For stealing her car and leaving her at a fucking bar in the middle of the night in Zone 5 or for telling her the Fabulous Killjoys were dead?” Ronnie bitterly interrupted.

Caelan bit his lip.”All of it… I guess.”

I put my hands up. “Look, you don’t have to say anything!” He was clearly torn up about it and Ronnie was only laying on the guilt.

Caelan looked over at me and blinked, his lips parted in surprise.

I sighed. “Ronnie… can you just… give us a few minutes alone?”

Ronnie stared at me, then glanced back to her brother. “Fine… But he better apologize!”

I sighed again as she walked away, heading over to the table of older adults.

Caelan breathed out sharply.

“Look, you don’t have to—”

“No, she’s right,” Caelan said, nodding. “I shouldn’t have left you. And I’m really sorry about it. I shouldn’t have done any of the things I did…or said. I was acting real immature. And… you didn’t deserve to be left out in the cold like that. Literally.”

“It’s okay, Caelan. Don’t even worry about it,” I told him.

“You could have died,” he said as he looked down at the table.

“Well, I didn’t,” I gently retorted. Caelan looked up at me with pursed lips that almost formed a grin.

“I got in a lot of trouble when I got back to Sweetwater,” he said as he fidgeted with his fingernail in his mouth. “Both for going off and for not coming back with you. Mom was so pissed.”

“As we figured she’d be,” I chuckled. “So… how did you guys manage to get out here?”

“Well, after what happened at the Black Widow, all those killjoys came to Sweetwater for shelter. Everyone had only been talking about you and the Fabulous Killjoys, and then after no new word had come for a few weeks, not even from Dr. D or anyone else, some of us got a bit worried. So Angel assembled a team to go look for you and those two Fabulous Killjoys. We found Dr. D, and then from there, we banded with Show Pony to keep an eye out on any news from Battery City.”

“And your parents just let you and Ronnie come?”

Caelan shrugged a shoulder. “Well, after leaving you, Mom told me I had to bring you back and I couldn’t come back to Sweetwater without you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Wow. She’s singing a completely different tune.”

Caelan breathed out a laugh. “Yeah, well… she really liked you. She also told me that when we found you to give you a stern talking-to about running away.” He smiled.

I smiled back. “Hey, I want to apologize, too. I’m sorry for letting you down like that. I was harsh, and insensitive… and I _was_ kind of acting crazy back then.”

Caelan smiled. “It’s okay.”

“So… are we still friends?”

Caelan nodded. “Of course. I missed you!”

I leaned over the table and hugged him. Caelan tentatively wrapped his arms around my back.

“I just have to be honest… it’s not easy,” he said as we let go.

I creased my brow. “What’s not?”

“Well… You look even prettier now than when I last saw you,” he told me with a warm gaze.

My eyes widened. “Oh. Well, I’ve had access to showers and makeup now,” I joked.

Caelan shook his head and laughed. “Look, I don’t want to make this weird or anything. We’re friends, and being friends with you is already a gift in itself.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

He really had grown up since I last saw him. I’m almost a bit proud of how mature he’s being.

  
  


 

  
  


The next day, we planned on forming a strategy. We had to give it a few days for Gerard to be appeased with my absence and we needed to wait for the recruits and firepower to carry out the plan. We were also running out of time before Gerard put his soldiers on the same chems as him. On Zack, who might be instrumental in the course of getting Gerard back to normal—if that could even be accomplished.

So we only had a narrow time frame to set this plan into action.

Pony sent out radio messages through his transmitter to Dr. D, and the hope was that the message would be received that we were all on the same page, and that all the recruits would soon meet up here in the Borderlands with Rina.

So the rest of my time here was spent just waiting.

It was strange, feeling at a sort of peace out here in the Borderlands. There were no SCARECROW soldiers out here, since those tests were suspended. And being with a bunch of people I was familiar with and sort of being normal without fearing of being discovered by Gerard was really nice. It made me want to never go back to Battery City.

But of course, thinking about all the guys being stuck there and my parents being brainwashed, I knew that I could never live knowing they were all still suffering.

The sun shined out here, and the world was quiet. It was nice just to be normal and talk with friends, leisurely sitting around day after day. But at the same time, I knew it was a peace that wouldn’t last.


	17. Chapter 17

Today was D-Day.

Well, actually it was May 3rd. Because that was the date we decided on carrying out the coup.

Rina met up with us all the night before, FIFTY KILLJOYS in tow. There were too many people to really fit into the restaurant, so we were outside.

“Leya? What are you doing here?” Rina asked when she saw me, looking almost pleasantly surprised. It was interesting, her hair wasn’t so tidy anymore, she had noticeable dirt on her face, and even her clothes—jeans and a gray sweater and dirt-caked tennis shoes—looked a bit dirty and torn, but she seemed happy and skipped over to give me an embrace.

“The same thing you’re doing,” I replied with a smile. “It’s good to see you again!”

“Good to see you, too. So the flash drive—what happened with that?” she asked, bending her brow.

I glanced down briefly as I toed at the dirt. “It didn’t happen. Frank and the others were captured by Gerard.”

Rina solemnly nodded. “I thought that might happen. But I had a feeling at least one of you would make it out alive.”

“Yeah, well… we’ve still got plan B. And we’ve got you—you’re a real genius, Rina,” I praised.

She looked taken aback, and glanced to the side bashfully. “Please… it’s a simple operation, and management is my profession. This was nothing…”

After meeting with the Killjoys—some of whom I had recognized from Sweetwater—we went over the plan, which basically entailed that Rina would lead them to the pharmaceutical plant and they would plant explosives to destroy it. Meanwhile, Alicia, Show Pony, and I would be at the broadcast center to expose the Director’s research video to the masses. Our job was supposed to be carried out first, and we were supposed to be at the broadcast center by 5 o'clock. Twenty minutes later, our Killjoy army was supposed to enter the city and blow up the pharmaceutical plant. Which meant that those twenty minutes were going to be our only chance to keep Gerard and his army occupied.

Basically, we were going to be the decoy.

It sounds like a self-sacrificing mission, but once the plant is destroyed and the army is set free upon the city, Gerard is going to have to choose between handling the broadcast video or handling the Killjoy army. He’ll be left vulnerable at least on one front, and we’re banking on that being the front of the Killjoy army.

Besides, there’s not much else he can do but arrest me, Alicia, and Pony. Well, there’s the obvious other option: killing us. But I feel like if he was going to kill me, he would have already done it.

Alicia, Pony, and I would come in through the Western front, and the other killjoys would come in through the South gate—where the manufacturing plant was.

“You’re gonna be okay?” Caelan asked me while everyone was preparing to set off in their cars and motor bikes in the afternoon, patchy clouds letting bright rays of sun in. “I can go with you.”

“It’s dangerous, Caelan,” I told him, making an attempt to keep my voice soft.

“And being part of the team with explosives isn’t?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

I sighed. “You’ll at least be with fifty experienced Killjoys. And Ronnie. No one’s going to let anything happen to you.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried about you,” Caelan told me, his eyes dark and intense on me.

“I’ll be okay. I’ve faced Gerard before. And I’ll have Show Pony and Alicia with me. The most that’ll happen to us is we’ll get arrested.”

Caelan heaved a heavy sigh. We were still among others, so our conversation could be heard.

“Hey, what is it?” I asked as I got closer to him.

Caelan looked over at me with a sad expression. “I feel horrible about leaving you behind. So if it’s in my power, I don’t want to do it again.”

I crossed my arms and gave him a grin. “You’re not leaving me behind. And hey, I chose to stay behind. And I’m choosing to go on this mission.”

Caelan nodded as he looked to his feet. I moved forward and wrapped my arms around his frame. He rose his arms up and grabbed at my back.

“You’ll be okay, kid. And I’ll see you after this is over,” I released him and gave him a smile.

He smiled back. “Don’t call me kid, old hag…”

We both laughed.

—-

  
  


Shortly after we all said our goodbyes, Show Pony, Alicia and I traveled through the tunnels of the Western gate of Battery City and I used Zack’s badge to get us through. We had all taken SCARECROW uniforms that Pony and the others had stolen from the dead agents and washed—according to Pony.

When we emerged from the tunnels, there were only two patrolmen on guard. The plan was to try and pass as agents, but there was a high chance that this wouldn’t work. Not just for the fact that we’d have to pretend to be SCARECROW soldiers, but we were pretty sure that no agents had been leaving the city since the field test.

So when we dropped down onto the ground, the patrolling agents turned to us.

“Present your I.D.’s!” one of them ordered.

I groaned internally. We only had Zack’s badge. I wondered if—

“Ahh!”

Pony had straight up launched onto the guy and shot his gun into the guy’s neck—though, it was a stun gun. Once I had explained that all of these new agents were former students my age, we figured it wouldn’t really be ethical to kill them. Only in the situation of the utmost necessity.

So this guy went down twitching. Meanwhile, I went for the other guy as soon as Pony got busy, and tackled him down to the ground. Alicia shot her stun gun at the guy’s back and he stayed down, convulsing for a couple seconds before going unconscious himself.

“Well,” Pony nonchalantly remarked as he raised his visor. “That was easy.”

  
  


After sitting the unconscious guards up against the wall, the three of us wasted no time in getting to the broadcast center, taking the metro on a direct route. When we got inside the glass building of the broadcast center, which was very cold and decorated with blue and white glass decor, we were of course met with security.

They approached us as soon as we got through the door, their BLI masks on.

“Hello, agents. What is your business here today?” one of them asked.

I glanced between Pony and Alicia. We hadn’t planned this far ahead…

“Important business on behalf of the SCARECROW General,” Pony said.

“What kind of business?” asked the other security guard.

“That is for us to know. And not for such low-ranking sheep like yourselves,” I added.

“Show us your badges,” one of them grunted.

“Is that really necessary?” Pony asked. “Come on, man… we just need to be able to do our job.”

“Well, no one gets through here without being authorized. Show us your badges.”

“So you want to do this the hard way, eh?” Pony asked. I couldn’t see his face behind the mask, but I could hear the grin curling up the side of his face.

“It doesn’t matter what rank you are,” the second agent scolded. “Show us your authorization.”

“Well, don’t say we didn’t give you fair warning,” Pony sighed. Then he sent an upper cut to the security guard’s ribcage.

Alicia and I followed suit and shot out our stun guns, hitting the other agent. The receptionist and other workers in the lobby gasped.

“Get out of here, everyone!” I yelled as I walked across with my stun gun raised. They scurried and sprinted past us out to the street, all except for the blonde receptionist sitting at her desk, looking around frantically.

I ran over to her, seeing as she was about to turn on an alarm system.

“Don’t you dare!” I said as I picked her up by her shoulder and ushered her away.

Then a stampede of footsteps approached from the different sides of the lobby. Security reinforcements. Of course.

“Shit, more are coming!” Pony gritted out. He raised his gun and shot at three security guards before he turned to me and Alicia. “You girls gotta get up to the top floor before they shut this place down or block you from accessing it. Take the stairs!”

Alicia and I were busy fighting off our own opponents.

“We’ll help you! All of us are going to do this together!” I shouted after I struck down an agent.

“We don’t have time!” Pony argued after pushing away the agent he was currently wrestling.

Alicia just barely escaped a tackle and kicked down an agent. Then she ran up to my side. “There’s too many agents down here,” she gasped.

“Pony!” I called out as I darted over to help him.

He turned back to me, the hair fallen over his eyes. “I’m fine! You gotta go! Finish the mission!” He grunted out as he flipped over the agent, then struck them unconscious.

I gulped, “Promise me we’ll meet up when this is over!”

“It’s a date!” Pony told me with a lopsided grin.

I briefly smiled at him before tugging Alicia along with me towards the stairwell, where it was quiet. You couldn’t even tell a riot was going on.

“Is he going to be alright?” Alicia asked as we climbed. “I don’t know about leaving him by himself.”

“I believe in him,” I gasped out as we started up another flight. “He’s been doing this longer than me, anyway. I’m sure he’s got it handled.”

Alicia nodded at me. “Are you ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied.

When we got to the top broadcast level, there were only a few people still inside. I looked at the time on the wall. 4:48.

I cleared my throat and stood up tall as I barged into the space.

“Official SCARECROW order. All of you are to leave this building,” I yelled. “Now!”

Everyone hurriedly got up and picked up their belongings, trying to turn off the computers.

“Leave the computers. Just go!” Alicia belted out from beside me. She whispered close to me, “Was that good?”

“Excellent,” I whispered back.

As soon as everyone left, both Alicia and I took off our helmets. It was so much easier to breathe now. We went into the small cell where a bunch of screens, keyboards and shit tons of buttons were everywhere.

I grabbed at the flash drive hanging from my neck. I didn’t even know if it was going to work after having gone through the sewer river with me…

“How are we supposed to know where to upload the thing?” Alicia asked me.

“Uh…” Shit.

I looked around, trying to read all the labels on everything, to see what corresponded with which screen. Fuck, I should have asked Rina about this.

But hey. I’m smart. I’m an elite student. I should be able to figure this out. I _**have**_ to figure it out.

To save Mikey and Frank and Ray and Gerard.

To save everyone.

I found a computer looking thing which had ports on its side, corresponding to flash drives and other chords. I saw a USB port.

I darted over and inserted the flash drive into the open port. I looked to where the file came up on a central screen with instruction prompts.

“Aha!” I cheered out.

“You know what you’re doing?” Alicia asked as she sidled up next to me.

“Sort of…”

Now how do I broadcast programs?

“Hey! I think this is where everything’s controlled—all the stations.” Alicia was on the other side of the oval cell and was clicking on a computer screen, switching from mini-screens.

I glanced over to the screens that were broadcasting, and some of them were switching between each other.

“All we have to do is switch whatever is on the computer to whichever station we want,” she said as she clicked through them.

“How do we do that?”

Alicia looked down, and then at the ground, then she stood up and peered behind the screens.

“All my years as a guitar tech… who knew it’d still pay off!” she grinned.

I raised an eyebrow as she darted over to the corner and grabbed a coil of some type of computer cord.

She pushed up her sleeves to her elbows, then ducked underneath the desk, hooking up one end of the cable to the screen that showed Channel 4.

“Open up the video file,” Alicia ordered me as soon as she stood up again. As I went ahead and did that I heard her mutter, “Now where is the audio cord?”

I clicked open the video and started to play it. “Yes! It works!”

“Awesome!” Alicia exclaimed as she clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Now we just have to sync it to the station port.”

“Are you like a secret genius too?” I asked her.

She giggled. “I was a guitar tech before I met Mikey. Working with cords and inputs and hooking them all up to work on stage was my specialty.”

She took another cord and dragged it across the floor, easily connecting it. Now the video showed up on the screen for Channel 4.

My eyes widened. “We did it…” I gasped.

“Press play now!” Alicia urged me. “We’re live!”

I did as told, feeling my heart race as the Director showed up on screen, her voice permeating through the cell.

“Is this going to play now on everyone’s TV’s?”

“I think so,” Alicia answered. She darted out of the room, and I followed her. From this height, we could see the giant screens that usually showed news programs on the side of buildings. We looked out the windows. There was the video playing.

“Can we get this on all the other channels?” I asked Alicia.

“Umm… I think so,” she said with a furrow of her brow. “Let’s go try it!”

We ran back into the cell and Alicia scurried back over to where she was working previously. “These buttons down here seem to dictate which station goes on which screen. If we just flip them all on the same one…”

She reached down and flicked up the blinking buttons that seemed to switch it onto every different channel. Now the puzzle of screens was showing the experiment video on every single square.

“Holy shit… we did it,” I whispered out.

“Yes!” Alicia cheered as she turned to me and wrapped me into a hug, her dark long hair draping over me.

I gulped. “Now it’s only a matter of time before Gerard gets here.”

Alicia carefully looked at me, worry lines on her brow. “Are you scared?”

I blinked and sighed. “Don’t know. But we’ll be ready for him.”

I returned to the computer and skipped to the video footage of Gerard getting operated on. I kept monitoring the video to make sure all the important parts were playing, then I made sure to make the video loop.

Alicia was watching my back the whole time, pacing with her stun gun in her hand.

  
  


Then at 5:25 the power went off in the cell and all the lights shut off.

Alicia and I ran to the window, and saw that not only were the giant screens shut off, but so were the rest of the lights in the buildings around us.

Gerard is here.

“Shit,” Alicia hissed.

I turned to her and placed an arm on her elbow. “Go! Hide yourself!”

Alicia frowned at me. “And what—leave you here to fend for yourself? No way!”

I frowned back at her. “I’ll be fine!”

“I’m not leaving you to face him on your own,” she growled back as she stared me down. Damn, she was really scary when she wanted to be.

I gulped. “Alicia, he still doesn’t know you’re alive! If for some reason I need backup or we need the element of surprise, it’s going to be you who will save us all.”

Alicia still held a glare on me, though it softened. “Do you even have a plan?”

I let the corner of my mouth turn up into a grin. “I’m pretty good at improvising.”

A few seconds later, a bang erupted from the corridor outside of this level.

“Listen to me. If I’m in trouble, feel free to step in. But I’ll be fine! Now hide!” I urged her with a squeeze on her hand.

Alicia nodded and ran off towards a far corner of the level. I took in a gulp and flexed my knuckles, brandishing both the stun gun and my ray gun.

The room had a bunch of big black desks and I went to crouch under one of them, holding my guns ready. I looked down at the barrel of my ray gun.

“Count to seventeen and close your eyes…” I whispered out.

Another loud commotion ushered in a team of seven SCARECROW elite soldiers with their guns bared. I could see their legs and part of their heads from here, though they were all wearing helmets.

“Find her,” was the order I recognized to be Gerard’s voice.

I watched them as they walked in, wondering how to approach this. Wondering if Pony is alright, or if he had been captured, or worse…

It’s dark in this building now that the sun is setting and no direct light filtered in through the windows. I’m in a prime position to do a sneak attack. But seven on one…

I held my breath as an agent walked near me… Do I wait this out? Do I wait until someone discovers me? But what if they discover Alicia first…?

“Look everywhere! Leave no space unchecked!” Gerard ordered.

I heard a crash, and looked up to see someone turn over a desk.

I had to make a decision soon. The person nearest to me was walking away from me. I sidled out from the side and aimed my stun gun for their leg.

“Arghhh… what?” they grunted out.

“She’s over there!”

I sent another stun shot into the agent’s leg. They went down, but I could already hear the approaching footsteps.

I emerged from my hiding place and rolled out into the corridor and ran, crouching low to roll under another desk in the next row.

“Leya… Come out, come out wherever you are…” Gerard taunted. “Or are we going to continue this game of hide and seek? I’ll have you know, we got Pony. He’s in cuffs, guarded by some pretty mean soldiers of mine.”

I internally cursed myself, feeling the burn of anger in my chest. Then I stood up quick, peering through a gap in the partition of the adjacent desks. I had an opening on two agents who were peering around. I shot out with the stun gun. Got one in the neck.

“Where is she?!” another agent yelled.

I ducked back down and heard more approaching footsteps. Five more left. Plus Gerard.

“So this is what you were trying to do?” Gerard called out. “Expose the truth on what happened to me? Showing the world how I have been improved? Not sure where you were trying to go with that… Why don’t you explain? If I knew this was all you were going to do, there would be no need for all this trouble.”

Another agent approached near me and I grabbed at their leg, then attempted to shoot them with the stun gun. But they kicked me off before the shock made its effect.

“She’s here!” The agent took his helmet off. It was Zack.

He bent down and grabbed at me, though I still bared my weapons against him.

I had my gun pointed against his chest, but I didn’t know whether to shoot or not. He was giving me a cold gaze, and I didn’t know which version of him I got. I gasped in a breath, then pushed at him. But before I could get far, another agent approached behind me and aimed their gun. When I turned back around, behind Zack were two more running towards us.

I glanced at Zack, and he gave me a singular raise of his left eyebrow. I decided to trust him.

I turned around and punched the guy in front of me, then shot him with the stun gun. Meanwhile, Zack turned around and took out the first guy behind him. I whipped around and stunned the following agent, then turned back to see the last agent running towards me with a gun.

He shot out a laser, which I ducked from just in time. Zack rushed at him, and then Gerard came up out of nowhere and shot out lasers toward me and Zack.

“Get down!” I shouted as I pulled at Zack’s leg, tripping him before he could even take my direction.

“Oof!” he grunted out. I rolled forward and sent a shot into the agent he was grappling with.

Then I stood up quick, aiming my ray gun just above where Gerard stood, shattering the glass of the lights above his head.

He picked up his arms and tried to shield himself as he ran out of the way.

“Thank you,” I whispered out to Zack as I stood up. I put the stun gun back into my hip holster.

“No problem,” he whispered back as he followed my lead.

“Zack, Zack, Zack… You’re a traitor!” Gerard cheered out as he continued to approach us with his gun bared. “Totally did not see that coming.”

He then shot at the lights above us, making the glass shatter and fall in blades. Zack ushered me away from the falling glass.

“I can do your tricks, too, Leya!” Gerard jeered out.

He came running over to where Zack and I stood, opposite on the other end of the corridor.

Zack squared up his shoulders and held his gun out.

“Get out of here, Leya,” he told me without turning back to me.

I creased my brow. “No!”

Gerard laughed as he gave us a toothy grin. “I wouldn’t expect her to change her mind. She’s quite stubborn.”

“Then I guess you’re just gonna have to go through me to get to her,” Zack answered.

Gerard raised his eyebrows and groaned. “Ugh, alright…”

He raised his gun up and Zack pushed me behind him, sliding something cold into my hand. Before I could look at what it was, I heard the ray gun go off and jerked my head up. Gerard had fired off a second laser and it hit Zack.

“Grr,” Zack whimpered as he swayed to the side and crashed to the floor.

“Zack!” I cried out as I crouched down and looked him over. I couldn’t see where there was blood because he was wearing all black, though he had clearly been shot.

“I’m okay….” he grunted out on the floor. Though he was clutching his thigh and gritting his teeth, sweat glistening on his brow and in his hair.

I finally looked at what he had slipped into my left hand. It was a plastic syringe. I popped off the protective cover with my thumb, then tucked it back into my sleeve, making sure the needle was embedded into the leather band on my wrist. I looked back up at Gerard, still hearing Zack’s shuddering painful breaths.

I felt heat course through my veins and my jaw tightened as I looked back up at Gerard.

I’ve had more than enough of this all-black-wearing, perfect, asshole version of him.

I stood up, keeping my glare on him.

“That’s quite the face you have there,” Gerard remarked.

As I approached him, I raised my arm and pointed the gun in his face.

“Do it. You can solve everything if you just pull that trigger. All that anger, that remorse, all that loss and injustice that you’ve experienced over the past few years, let it out.” He stared at me, his eyes slightly narrowed in jest.

I swallowed and gripped the gun tighter.

“Why don’t you go ahead and kill me? I’m already dead to you, anyway,” he sneered when we were only a few inches apart.

“Arrrgh!” I growled out in frustration. I quickly swiped the gun across Gerard’s temple, sending his head jerking to the left. I threw down my gun, then grabbed him by the collar and sent down my fist again, this time into his cheek.

He weakly let out a laugh as he bent over.

I stood back, unclenching my pulsing fist, my fingers twitching and tingling with the cuts on my knuckles.

Gerard stood back up and cleared his throat. “That’s it?”

“I’ve been meaning to punch you for a while now.” I narrowed my eyes. “Of course I wouldn’t kill you.”

“That’s too bad,” Gerard said as he approached me, raising his own gun. “Because now I’m going to have to kill you.”

I clenched my jaw. “Fine. Fire away.”

"Leya, don’t!” Zack hollered from behind me.

Gerard raised his eyebrow. “You’re putting up a front.”

“Front or not, you’ve got the gun. Just do it.” I backed up, then raised out my arms to the sides.

Gerard gave me a hard stare as his brow furrowed.

"Why don’t you pull the trigger?” I asked in a steady voice, though my arms were still trembling.

Gerard sauntered closer to me, his gun twirling in his hand. “So you’re asking me to kill you now?”

“You said you were going to do it.”

“I said I have to. Not that I was going to…” he replied.

I flattened my eyes and relaxed my arms. “Gettin’ real tired of this wishy-washy personality. The old Gerard was much more fun.”

Gerard stopped twirling his gun and cleared his throat. "I think I’d rather let you live.”

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Because at this point, killing you would be doing you a favor.” He picked his jaw up, looking down at me over the bridge of his nose. “You have nothing to live for.”

“And what do you have?” I sneered. “You don’t have any friends. You don’t have a family. All you have left is a ghost of a dead city.”

Gerard’s mouth tightened as he stared at me. Then he lurched forward and grabbed my arms. “You think you’re so brave. What, have you got something up your sleeve that’s going to miraculously change me back into the Gerard you miss? Well, I’ve got news for you. He’s gone. Forever.”

I squirmed against his grip. “No he’s not. And he can come back. All you have to do is leave. Leave this all behind! Go home. Go home to your daughter. Don’t you remember her?“

Gerard’s eyes faltered and widened.

"Don’t you remember the song we wrote for her?” I asked while he still held me in his grip. “About having her go on… you think she would like to know that you’re the one responsible for bringing death to so many in the Zones?”

“No, I don’t care!” Gerard shouted.

“Don’t you remember singing about being the only hope for her… because she’s the only hope for you?” I continued.

"Shut up!” he shouted as he moved his hands from my arms to grasp at my throat.

“That’s enough, Gerard!” It was Alicia who shouted. She was just several feet to the left of me and Gerard, with a gun aimed at him.

Gerard’s eyes widened and the color left his face as he whipped around to face her.

“Alicia?” he gasped out.

With him preoccupied, this gave me my opening. I slid my hand down into my sleeve and gripped the syringe. Before Gerard could pull away, I slammed the syringe through his stomach and pushed the liquid through.

Gerard gargled out in startled pain, looked down, then immediately threw off the syringe. He pushed me forward, so my throat was released. “What the fuck was that, Leya?”

I was still choking, so I couldn’t answer.

“God… I feel..” His cheeks started to grow rosy and his eyes grew wide as he looked to the ground, holding a hand to his own throat. He finally looked at me again and narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck was that?”

“I just injected you with what SCARECROW Academy students take to grow strong and be good soldiers,” I croaked out.

“You gave me steroids?” Gerard half laughed, half growled.

“Well, they’re not exactly steroids. They’re other chemicals that facilitate muscle strength and other—don’t make me explain this,” I answered with a roll of my eyes.

Gerard advanced upon me. “So that was your master plan? Bring Alicia back to life, inject me with steroids, then what?” He laughed. “That’s not enough to take me down.”

“It’s enough to do something else,” I replied with a narrow of my eyes. “Zack, how much was in there?”

“Oh… about ten times as much as the normal daily amount,” Zack groaned from the ground.

I smirked at Gerard. “I gave you ten times the normal amount the students take. Now… I’m not exactly sure what that will do to your body, but I’m pretty sure your hormones are going crazy right now, which is supposed to like, block that neurotransmitter from working in your brain. I don’t know…biology was never my strong suit. I was more of a math and English geek.”

Gerard grabbed at me again and slammed me against the metal partition between these cubicles. I whimpered at this against my will.

“You think you’re so clever, huh?” he said. “Trying to give me back my emotions by fucking up my hormones!”

I gulped. “Well, you’re being a little emotional right now…so it must be working…”

“Well, you know what I’m feeling right now?” Gerard chuckled. “I’m feeling like I really don’t care about ending your life anymore.”

Before I could make a move, Gerard grasped a hand on the side of my head and—


	18. Chapter 18

I woke up and felt my head pound. I opened my eyes to see a bright sun poking through the clouds above me, making it hard to see anything else. I picked up my head and looked to the right. I could see therooftops of skyscrapers and all around me was concrete. I was on theroof of the broadcast building.

My wrists were stuck. I looked down and saw that they were in cuffs. The regular kind you saw in movies, though, not the silicon ones that SCARECROW agents usually used. Holding my arms to my chest, I picked myself up and looked to my left.

I gasped.

Gerard was sitting there with his hands between his knees, holding a ray gun with a blank face while the rays of the sun played and shone in his black hair.

I had so many questions.

“What…am I doing here?” I groaned.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” Gerard told me as he glanced back toward me.

I brought my cuffed hands to my head, which was feeling woozy and slightly throbbing. “How long was I out for…?”

Gerard calmly blinked at me. “Little over twenty minutes.”

I blinked and furrowed my brow. “Why am I alive? Why are we here?”

I felt up at my temple again, and dry red flakes of blood came off on my fingertips.

“Well, after you pissed me off I lost a little control and hit you a little too hard,” Gerard casually explained. “And then you were unconscious. And I couldn’t have that. So I took you up here to wait until you woke up, so we could finish our conversation.”

I bent my eyebrows. What the fuck?

“Where’s Alicia?!” I gasped. “And Zack!”

“Alicia’s fine…” Gerard told me as he turned around and placed a hand on my knee. “Zack’s in pain. He tried to come after me, but I used your nifty stun gun to put him down. Both Alicia and Zack are out, actually”

My breath came quicker as my heart pounded and my stomach began to sink. Shit.

“Don’t look so concerned… I didn’t kill them. They’ll wake up eventually. And the blood loss from Zack’s leg won’t become serious for at least another few hours,” Gerard explained with a gentle smile.

So he was still his weird, non-guilty self. It didn’t work.

“By the way, you are a dirty rotten liar! Both of you,” he laughed as he gave me a toothy grin. “Working together behind my back… Of course, I had a feeling that would happen. Why do you think I kept him so close to me?”

I swallowed and brought my knees up to sit up straight. “So what do you want? Why didn’t you just shoot me?”

Gerard glanced away and down at the gun in his hand. “I don’t know. I guess I still like you.”

I blinked at him. “Is that why we’re up here?”

Gerard sighed and stood up, starting to pace. “I need to keep you from doing anything stupid. Putting you behind bars—I have a feeling you’d find a way out. Killing you—even from a logical standpoint, that doesn’t make sense.”

“Logical? Like anything else you’re doing is logical,” I groaned as I shielded my eyes from the sun.

“Well, I’m guessing that in a half hour, give or take, I’d feel pretty terrible if I killed you,” he said as he looked down at me.

"But you wouldn’t right now?” I asked.

Gerard looked down at his hand, which was clenched around the ray gun. “I can feel it already. The loss of control.”

I stared at him, waiting for clarification.

“Whatever you did to me, I don’t really have control over what I’m feeling or doing anymore—it’s like a broken jack-in-the-box. Keep winding and winding… you don’t know when it’s going to POP!” he shouted out the last word and grinned.

I gave him a steady stare. So maybe what I injected him with really did work…

He sighed. “Now I know the real reason I wanted you gone.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”

“You’re my weakness,” Gerard laughed as he then sat down next to me. I sidled away on instinct. He softly chuckled at this.

“You were my last good deed, Leya,” he told me with a gentle gaze.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?”

Gerard took in a deep breath. “I’m sure you’ve noticed how cruel I can be, since I’ve been the SCARECROW General. It’s not the first time I’ve been this cruel, though. And there are a lot of things I’ve done in my past that I’m not particularly proud of. But the last good thing I did was rescue you.”

“What about Grace? When you rescued her?” I asked.

Gerard looked down again. “She was in trouble because of me, in the first place. And I didn’t exactly succeed in rescuing her. Wouldn’t have done it without the other guys—and that incident sparked a chain of unfortunate events for all of them.”

He looked back up at me. “You were truly the last good thing I did.”

I waited a few seconds before I answered, “Why are you telling me this?”

Gerard sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know, Leya—I’m trying to get my thoughts in order and everything is getting mixed up because of the drugs you injected me with and I’m confused and I don’t know whether to kill you or whether to let you go, but I know one thing—I know that you are standing here because of me. Because I saved you. And for some inexplicable reason, you want to do the same for me. Even though I’ve terrorized you and I’ve taken away the people closest to you. You haven’t given up on this notion that I can somehow be ‘saved’. You haven’t given up on me.”

He was gazing at me softly now, his mouth relaxed, though kind of sad. He looked more like his regular self.

I swallowed. “You were the one who taught me not to give up on myself. So I’m not going to give up on you.”

Gerard put his gun down, then leaned over and yanked me up by my hands until we were both standing. He stared me in the eye.

“If I kill you, that will destroy any hope I have left,” he softly told me. “You are the one thing that redeems me in this world. If I take that away, there will be nothing left. I’ll be set free.”

I furrowed my brow. “What?! That doesn’t make sense!”

“Sure it does!” Gerard said as he began to pull me with him across the roof.

Fuck, this is not going to go anywhere good.

“How would that be a good idea at all?”

“I can take more pills,” Gerard told me. “The pain would only be temporary. And after you’re gone, I can fully embrace who I am now.”

I didn’t think I could bend my eyebrows any further, but now he’s just talking crazy. His eyes were wild as they glinted at me against the sun.

“If you die, the good part of me dies,” he explained in a calm voice as he dragged me to the edge of the roof. From here I could see the ground and tiny cars that looked like ants. I felt a shudder go through my entire body.

“Gerard, no!” I cried out. I tried to pull myself away from his hold, but he only held on tighter and pushed me until there were only a couple inches between my heels and the edge of the roof.

I was shaking, my heart thundering in my chest. The only thing standing between me and death is Gerard. An off-kilter, psychopathic Gerard. He had his hand curled around the center of the cuffs between my wrists.

“One little push will send you falling to your death. One little pull brings you back on solid ground,” he told me with a bright look in his eyes.

"Gerard,” I gasped out. “Don’t.”

“Good. You actually look scared of me for once,” he scoffed.

“Please don’t do this,” I pleaded. I was shaking so much now that I probably wouldn’t even need him to knock myself off-balance.

Gerard lost the brightness in his eyes. "When the others find out, they’ll be devastated. Furious. Frank will hate me. He’ll never forgive me. He might try to kill me. Mikey wouldn’t love me anymore. It would destroy him. Ray would support them both. He’d give up on me.”

“Please stop using me as a physical metaphor for your internal crisis!” I wailed.

"But it’s not a metaphor. It’s you. You’re my internal crisis. Your physical state of being determines who I become,” Gerard replied with a resolute stare.

"Gerard, listen,” I started in a gentle voice. “You’re not right in the head. You just said so yourself—give it a half hour or so, if you kill me—you’re going to feel terrible. So don’t do it.”

He gripped the cuffs and made me waver a bit. I whimpered.

“What if I never go back to the Gerard you’re trying to save? What then?” he asked me, an edge to his voice.

“Then I won’t stop trying to bring him back,” I gasped out.

Gerard stared at me for a long time. Then he finally stepped back and slowly released his hand from the cuffs as he kept eye contact with me.

“Thank you,” I breathed out in relief. "Can you help me down now?

A smirk curved on Gerard’s lips. "I forgot. You’re scared of heights. So now you don’t mind me holding your hand?”

I shook my head and made a smile. “No.”

Gerard stepped forward again and grabbed my wrist.

“Leya!” It was Zack who had yelled and was now on the roof with his gun raised and aimed at Gerard.

“Zack, no!” I shouted.

But I was too late.

Zack had released a laser and struck Gerard on the side of his ribs. Gerard jerked forward while still holding onto me, but then lost his grip, sending me off-balance. I swayed backward, then the world began to turn. Every nerve in my body bristled and I felt my heart go cold.

I screamed out. I willed every muscle in my legs and calves to stay on the concrete—but to no avail.

In that first second that I fell headfirst, I could feel death coming for me. The ultimate dread, that cold pit in my stomach hardening like stone. I could feel the tears rush out. I never imagined that things would end like this.

And then my leg caught onto something hard and though the pain seared around it, I noticed that I had began to swing in mid-air—I wasn’t falling anymore. I had my arms curled against my chest, and I felt the blood rush to my head as my hair whipped around my face. I looked up and saw Gerard’s hand clamped onto my left ankle.

“Gerard!” I shouted out, half in relief, half in concern. He was slumped over the side of the building, his face red and creased in effort. He had one arm braced on the concrete, and he was pulling with his other.

“…I don’t know if I can pull you up,” he grunted out.

My tears were spilling out again, this time dripping down my temples. “You saved me!”

Gerard grunted again as he tried to pull me up by my leg. I noticed that under his chest red liquid was dripping over the edge.

“How bad are you hurt?!” I called out.

"You’re the one hanging off the edge of a building, and you’re concerned about me?” Gerard laughed out.

“You’re shot!” I gasped out, trying not to still freak out at being suspended upside down about a thousand feet up in the air.

“I’m fine! Your friend got me pretty good, though,” Gerard groaned.

"Leya!” It was Zack who emerged from the edge of the cliff.

“Help him!” I hollered.

Zack nodded and went by Gerard’s side to grab my other leg. They both pulled me up until I could get a sort of foothold, as Zack held my legs down. Once I was upright again, Gerard gripped me by the cuffs and pulled me up into his arms. I buried myself into his hold and laid my head onto his neck.

He coughed out. “I’m sorry I made you stand on the edge.”

I picked up my head while I still gripped him tight. “I’m alive! It’s okay! You saved me!”

Gerard tilted his head and shrugged. I did what I could with my wrists cuffed and reached up to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. You’re still good. You’re still my Gerard!”

He smiled at me and embraced me with even more strength, holding my head to his neck.

“Leya, I’m so sorry—I didn’t know—I just saw you on the edge and he moved forward, and after he had knocked you out down there, I thought—” Zack stuttered out.

“It’s okay, Zack,” I sniffled.

"I almost killed you!” he snapped. His face was contorted and blotched with red in different patches. “I’m an idiot.”

“Zack,” I looked up at him. “ _It’s okay._ ”

He gave me a sad smile, tears streaming out from the edges of his eyes. “So does that mean it’s over?”

I looked over at Gerard, who was still bleeding, his blood now on my arms. “Does it hurt?”

“Only a little,” Gerard reassured me with a smile.

“So does this mean… you’re back to normal?” Zack asked.

Gerard looked down. “I don’t know. But I saved Leya. So that has to mean something, right?”

“You’re still confused?” I asked.

He turned to me. “Not so much anymore. I know I can’t let you die. Because you’re my friend.”

Zack helped both of us stand up, though he was limping a bit, a ripped piece of cloth tied around his thigh. Gerard hissed and winced as he bent over in pain.

“Is he going to be alright?” I asked Zack.

“He probably needs a doctor.”

“You need a doctor, too,” I said as I looked down at Zack’s leg. “How’s Alicia?”

“I don’t know. But she should be waking up soon. Those stun guns don’t hold for very long.”

I moved over to Gerard, who was slightly shuddering still. "We’ll get you fixed up, okay?”

“Ha, serves me right, after I shot you in the back,” he chuckled.

"Gerard,” I called out softly this time as I got close to him. “Let’s go home.”

He blinked over at me. “Home…”

“Everyone’s waiting for you,” I answered.

He slowly nodded, then looked down. “But Battery City needs me.”

“Who gives a shit about Battery City?” I asked. “We did just fine out in the Zones, didn’t we? Give this city a chance to take care of itself.”

*BOOM*

I felt the loud boom in my chest as it vibrated through the entire city. The three of us on the roof whipped around to look at the source of the thundering sound, and saw a giant, orange mushroom cloud sprouted over the southern edge of the city.

“What the hell is that?” Gerard groaned as he squinted.

"There goes BL/ind’s pharmaceuticals,” I let out with a soft chuckle.

Zack kept a hand over his eyes as he stared. “Get out. They actually pulled it off.”

We all watched as the explosion set off into a series of explosions around the area and burned orange into the horizon.

“So… does this mean we’re done?” Zack asked as he turned toward me.

I smiled at this as I turned toward him. “Yeah. I think our work here is done.”

He released a deep exhale. “Well, that’s good. Almost died on the way, though.” He bent down and grabbed my wrists. “Let me get those cuffs of of you.” He fumbled for his key in one of his pant pockets, then moved quickly to undo the cuffs.

“Thanks,” I said as I felt around the cut skin on my wrists.

"No problem.” He smiled at me. “Sorry again, for nearly killing you. Again.”

I chuckled. “It’s okay, Zack.”

We smiled at each other, then looked back at the horizon.

“It’s really over,” Gerard let out as he stared out to the distance.

In a strange way, being on top of Battery City, watching that giant orange glowing cloud of fire in the horizon—it was beautiful. For the first time in a long time, I really felt good about everything. I felt all the muscles in my back relax, and I felt like I could really breathe again.

This was the end of a world, but just the beginning of a new future.

 

  


Immediately after this, I sprinted back down to the broadcast level to check on Alicia. With just a bit of a shake, she woke up, and then the two of us escorted Zack and Gerard down to the bottom level, where Pony was still being held.

“Let him go!” Gerard yelled once we all got down to the lobby. Pony didn’t look too worse for wear, though he did have a stream of blood on the edge of his lips.

“Sir, you are wounded!” one of the agents cried out.

“SCARECROW is hereby abolished. Officially,” Gerard announced in a loud, authoritative tone.

There were a lot of murmurs and exclamations. “But sir—“

“Did you not hear me?!” Gerard shouted. “You have no power anymore. Let the man go! Pony, you got my permission to beat anyone’s ass if they challenge you.”

“Party boy is back!” Show Pony exclaimed as he jumped up and casually shoved his way out of the crowd of guards who were now standing in stunned uncertainty.

He ran and jumped over to hug Gerard, at which Gerard grunted in pain. “Dude, I thought I was never going to see you again! The real you, that is! Aw, fuck yeah!” Pony launched kisses onto either side of Gerard’s face, which got Gerard smiling and blushing. “Thanks, Pony…”

Alicia and I smiled to each other at this.

“Zack, you’re in charge of re-educating your comrades on the new situation. And… I think I need a doctor,” Gerard muttered.

“You both need doctors!” I groaned out. “Pony, can you take them to the hospital? There should be one literally down the street.”

Pony saluted me with a palm against his forehead. “As you wish, Princess Leya!”

I smiled at this.

“So that’s it now?” one of the agents asked.

“Gentlemen, your work here is done. Go home,” Gerard answered. “And if anyone tries anything, me and Zack and Pony here won’t hesitate to put you in your places. Oh, and… someone turn the power back on in the city.”

“What now?” Alicia asked as she turned to me.

I faced her with a smile. “Time to get our boys back.”

  


With Gerard’s directions, Alicia and I raced over to the new SCARECROW headquarters.

The city was dead, now that the sun was going down. The skyscrapers glowed under the shadow of an orange cloud, but down below everything else was gray. As I raced up the stairs in SCARECROW, it made me think of Sleeping Beauty, the prince racing through the slumbering kingdom and up the tallest tower to rescue his slumbering princess.

Except I wasn’t alone. Alicia was with me, racing beside me up the steps. After several minutes, we got to the 18th floor and entered into a room full of cubicles and desks. At one end of the room was a glass window.

Sitting behind the glass were my three warriors.

I turned to Alicia and smiled wide. She smiled back at me, her eyes twinkling.

Ray was the first one to see us and bolted upright, then pointed. 'Hey!”

Frank and Mikey picked up their heads, then turned to look where Ray was pointing.

I smiled as I darted forward to reach the glass, Alicia just a hair behind me.

“Leya!” Frank called out as a toothy grin spread on his face. The likes of which I hadn’t seen in such a long time.

“Alicia!” Mikey cheered as he stared at her, starry-eyed.

“Mikey!” she called back.

We all had now converged at the glass, the only thing keeping us separated.

“We saved the city!” I yelped out. “Gerard is back to normal too! Mostly. He’s in the hospital right now, though, because—well, it’s a long story, and—”

“Tell me all about it later,” Frank told me with a chuckle.

We smiled at each other, and then I looked to Ray and Mikey. “I’m so glad you guys are alright!”

Ray shook his head and grinned at me. “You had nothing to worry about, Leya. And we knew we had nothing to worry about, either.”

“Glad you’re okay,” Mikey told me. He looked to Alicia. “Both of you.”

“Owe it all to this chick,” Alicia remarked with a smile at me. “She’s about as crazy as all of you.”

All of the guys laughed.

“Alicia kind of saved the day, though,” I added. “She’s amazing!”

Alicia looked over at me and gave me a rosy smile. “Stop it…”

“You’re both amazing,” Mikey fondly remarked.

“And that’s what we were counting on,” Frank added as he grinned at me.

“Well, it’d be good to get out of here now, unless… you’re just visiting,” Ray joked as he looked down.

I laughed. “The power’s out. How do I open this?” I looked up at the glass, trying to find any kind of lock or opening.

Alicia raised her gun up and simply replied, “The old fashioned way.”

The three guys ducked into themselves against the wall as Alicia and I shot at the glass until it shattered and shards showered down.

Mikey didn’t even wait a second to jump out to embrace Alicia and kiss her.

Frank and Ray rushed over to me, and though they had their wrists handcuffed, we managed a group hug. I just wrapped my arms around the both of them and there was plenty of forehead nuzzling to go around.

“You guys are handcuffed?” I finally exclaimed with a laugh.

“You mind?” Frank asked as he raised up his hands, the chain between his wrists rattling.

I smiled. “You want me to do it with a gun?”

“Can we just find a key like civilized people?!” Ray moaned as he rolled his eyes.

Mikey laughed as he came over to me and grabbed my shoulders. He planted a kiss to the side of my head. “Thanks so much for rescuing us. Again.”

“N-no problem,” I answered as I wrapped a hand around his elbow. Alicia stared on with a gentle smile on her face. “It was a team effort. Zack, my friend, he helped. Pony helped. Rina helped. And so did all the other Killjoys!”

“What? Killjoys?” Frank questioned with a crease on his brow.

“Oh… right… Well…” I trailed off, not even knowing where to begin to explain.

“You really are something, aren’t you, Princess Leya?” Ray remarked with a grin.

“Wait—what are you talking about?” Frank asked.

“Come have a look-see!” I said with a playful raise of my eyebrow as I pulled him along with me to run over to the window at the opposite edge of the room.

We could still see the flames and ashes in the sky, spreading over the city.

“What the fuck did you do?” Frank asked with a soft giggle.

“Battery City’s going to be drug-free,” I answered with a smirk.

Frank turned to me with a grin. “You blew up half a city?”

“No, just the manufacturing plant where all the pills are made… It’s the angle against the sky and the position of the buildings that makes it look like it’s all over but—”

“I leave you alone for only two weeks and the world’s up in flames…” Frank kept a grin on me as he stared me in the eye.

“Maybe you shouldn’t leave me alone anymore,” I cheekily replied.

Frank smiled as he brought a hand up to my hair and stroked it. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

—-

The five of us made our way to the hospital on foot, and I could see the anticipation in each of the guys’ faces up until we got to Gerard’s hospital room.

“Gerard?” I called as I stepped into the room.

“Leya?” He sounded calm and gave me a smile. He was sitting up in bed, bandaged up under the white t-shirt he was wearing. Although, he did have a bruise on his cheek that was growing darker. I think that was my fault.

“I have company,” I told him, trying hard to contain the big grin that was forming.

Gerard blinked in anticipation.

Mikey was the first one to run in behind me and bolted to Gerard’s side.

“Mikey…” Gerard softly let out as he gazed at his little brother.

Mikey swallowed. “Is this really you?”

“Mikes, I’m so sorry for everything!” Gerard started as he became teary-eyed. “Really, just… I was so horrible. I can’t even—”

Mikey had launched himself forward and hugged Gerard, burying his face into his shoulder. “You’re back!”

“Yeah, I think so,” Gerard gulped as he held him close.

Mikey picked up his head, his voice breaking. “I missed you so much!”

They hugged and cried for another good minute as the rest of us filed in and watched on. Finally, Mikey pulled away and smiled just as Ray came up to his side.

Ray let out a fond sigh and grinned down at Gerard. “Hey, man…”

Gerard beamed up at Ray. “Toro….”

Ray softly chuckled and bent down to give Gerard a hug. “Never really ever gave up on ya. You know that, right?”

Gerard sniffed. “I know that now,” he replied as they shook together in their embrace. “I love you, man.”

“Love you too,” Ray said as he ruffled Gerard’s hair.

After Ray moved aside, we all directed our eyes to Frank, who was looking down at Gerard’s feet on the edge of the bed. He slowly brought his eyes up and met Gerard’s gaze.

“Frank…” Gerard croaked out, before heaving in a heavy sigh.

For a bit, I felt like maybe they should have their own moment alone. They were always so close, and it was a bit intense with them sometimes. Especially when they had disagreements. And we all knew how hard Frank had been trying to find Gerard.

“Gee,” Frank finally replied, smile curving up on the side of his mouth.

“I… I can’t even… There’s nothing I can say—”

“So don’t,” Frank interrupted Gerard.

Gerard shook his head and swallowed, tears coming out of his eyes and his voice growing even more husky. “I had no excuse…”

“Hey, I said shut up,” Frank sighed as he moved over to sit at Gerard’s hip. “You don’t need to say anything.”

Gerard’s mouth quivered into a smile as he looked up at Frank through his tears.

“I’m just glad to have you back,” Frank said. I could see the tears forming in his eyes, too. “God, I’m so happy!”

They both launched at each other into a strong embrace, crying into each other’s faces.

I started getting teary-eyed myself. We all loved and missed Gerard so much. And Frank, more than anybody, had been fighting to stay strong about it. To not give up hope.

Frank rubbed a hand through Gerard’s hair and they nuzzled foreheads together before breaking away.

“You were such a fucking dick, dude,” Frank finally laughed.

The rest of us broke into a laugh, Gerard included.

“Augh, I know…” Gerard moaned as he placed his palms over his face.

All of us were smiling now, and I can’t remember ever feeling so happy. For the rest of the hour, we all sat around and talked about nothing in particular. At certain points, some other Killjoys came into the room—the Fabulous Killjoys were only recently resurrected, so it was still a huge deal that they were all alive. Especially now that they were all reunited.

After a visit from a group of younger Killjoys, one of the younger teenage girls turned to me before they left.

“Are you… Princess Leya?!” a girl asked.

I bent my brow. “Umm…Yes?”

“What an honor to meet you!” she said as she threw her arms around me. “You are such an inspiration to all of us girl killjoys!”

I blinked in surprise at this, while I looked to the guys and Alicia for clarification that this was strange.

“Would you mind… signing my ray gun?” the girl asked.

My eyes widened. “You want me to sign your ray gun?”

She handed me a marker and her green ray gun, so I had no choice but to sign.

“Thank you so much!” she gave me another hug and left darting from the room. “I met her! She’s so sweet!” I could hear her gush to other kids behind the door.

“What the hell was that about?” I asked as soon as their voices disappeared.

“Didn’t they tell you? You’re famous over the airwaves now,” Pony told me with a smirk. He had come into the room soon after he figured out all of us were here. He was now perched atop Gerard’s bed, his legs swinging back and forth.

I blinked rapidly. “But none of you got asked to get your guns signed…”

Ray waved his hand. “We’re old news now… You’re young and hip.”

Mikey softly laughed at this. “You’re like the new and improved us!”

I rolled my eyes.

Frank chuckled as he looked over at me. “You did save the day, kid. You’re a legend now.”

I bent my eyebrows. “Legend? But I’m… just me. And, hey—don’t call me kid! Tomorrow, I’m officially not a teenager anymore anyway!”

He giggled. “Oh, is that so? Well, you still look like a kid!”

“So do you!” I retaliated.

“Yeah, well you’re short!” Frank said as he patted my head and giggled.

“You’re short, too!” I growled as I batted his hands away.

“Pipe down, both of you kids,” Ray softly chided.

“I can’t believe this is the guy who took down the Director and this is the girl who orchestrated the destruction of BLI—and you’re the biggest children,” Mikey chuckled.

Frank and I glared at Mikey. “Hey…”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Gerard told me from his bed.

“Tell me what?”

“One day they were going to tell stories about Princess Leya…” Gerard grinned with an arched eyebrow.

“I’m sure I’ll be old news tomorrow,” I said with a wave of my hand.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Gerard countered.

I smiled at him.

“Hey… what did you mean tomorrow you’re officially not a teenager anymore?” Alicia asked. She was sitting across Mikey’s lap right now, but had been quiet for the most part.

“Oh, well…” I blushed, I didn’t really want to bring attention to it, but now I have no choice. “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m turning 20.”

Frank’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? So what day is it? I don’t even know anymore.”

“Well, today’s May 3rd. So tomorrow is May 4th.”

Ray’s eyes widened, then he looked to Gerard, whose eyes had widened as well as his open mouth into a grin. He glanced over to Mikey, who also began to grin wide, who turned to Frank, who then laughed as he pointed to me.

“Oh my god!” he continued to giggle.

“I bent my eyebrows. “What? What’s so funny?!”

“May Fourth,” Ray chuckled out. “Your birthday is on May the Fourth!”

“Yeah? So?” I asked as I crossed my arms. I was getting irritated.

Alicia cleared her throat. “May the Fourth be with you,” she giggled.

“And your name is Leya! God, I love your dad!” Frank crowed as he bent over, his face red with laughter.

“That’s a thing?” I asked, horrified.

Gerard laughed. “I mean, I’d probably do the exact same thing if my daughter was born on May 4th.”

Mikey sighed. “Gosh, we really have to sit her down and watch it, don’t we?”

The rest of them continued to laugh at me as there was a knock on the door.

I stood up to go get it, and it was Zack. He was in a hospital outfit now, white t-shirt and gray sweatpants.

“Oh, hey!” I greeted him.

“Hey,” he said as he darted his eyes behind me.

“Do you want to meet the Fabulous Killjoys?”I asked.

“Maybe later,” Zack answered as he kept his eyes on me. “Need to tell you something.”

I furrowed my brow.

Zack laughed, grin stretching on his face. “Don’t worry. Nothing bad.”

He glanced behind me and waved a hand. I turned back to see the guys exchange uncertain waves.

Then Zack walked back out into the hallway and I followed.

“Who’s that? Her boyfriend?” I could hear Frank loudly ask just after I shut the door.

I think Zack heard, too, because then he glanced at me awkwardly as his cheeks grew rosy.

I am going to kill Frank.

I cleared my throat, trying to ignore that. “So, what did you need to tell me?”

“Come on, I’ll show you.”

I followed Zack down the hallways, passing other Killjoys who cheered when they saw me, until we finally came to a room that was quiet.

I recognized the two patients sitting in the adjacent beds.

“Mom, Dad!” I exclaimed as I saw them.

Dad turned to me and a grin grew on his face. “Leya!”

Mom smiled at me, too.

“I had your parents sent here to get treated. Flushing the chemicals out of their system,” Zack explained with a gentle smile.

I turned to him. “So… they’re okay?”

“Of course we’re okay,” my mom answered as she patted the space next to her.

I quickly went over and hugged her.

“We’re so sorry about the other day. It was awful!” she told me with a look of remorse.

“And we want you to know that we still love you very much,” Dad told me with a fond look.

I looked back at Zack, who humbly had his lips pursed, his hands behind his back.

“Thank you, Zack. For everything you’ve done these past few weeks. Couldn’t have made it without you,” I told him.

He swiped a hand into his gold fringe to move it away from his eyes, then cleared his throat. “It was nothing. You’re the real superstar of this whole thing, anyway. You kind of saved me, too.”

I smiled at him, then I turned back to my parents. “Everything’s going to be okay now! SCARECROW is done for. We destroyed the pharmaceutical plant. My friends are alright! And you guys… you guys are okay!”

“So what are you going to do now, Princess?” Dad asked me.

That’s a very good question. What _am_ I going to do now?


	19. Chapter 19

We all spent the night in the hospital. It was kind of like a nice, big sleepover with free hospital food. I slept in my parents’ room, andthe next morning I was treated to a “birthday breakfast”featuring donuts and ice cream.

It was actually really nice. No one else showed up, but it was nice to have a private moment with my parents. The last time I had a birthday celebration with them was when I turned 17. A bit of tears were shed, but smiles took over.

Of course, it didn’t take long for Frank, Mikey, Gerard, Ray, Alicia, Zack, and Pony to find me and give me loads of birthday hugs and jokes about me not being a teenager anymore (but still looking like one).

Later that morning, the rest of the Killjoys that blew up the pharmaceutical processing plant joined us at the hospital. Apparently after the successful coup, they had their own rally and celebration last night, so not all of them turned up at the hospital, including Ronnie and Caelan. So after some more celebration, there was a serious conversation between The Fabulous Killjoys, Alicia, Rina, Zack—basically anyone who was directly involved in the takedown.

By the end of the two-hour discussion, it was decided that Rina would become the new mayor of Battery City—figures as much, since she is probably the smartest person in this city and she knows the city’s operating system so well. Plus, she’s very level-headed and diplomatic. She’ll make a hell of a better leader than either the previous Director or under-the-influence Gerard.

Zack would be in charge of SCARECROW Academy’s police force, as far as rehabilitating and enforcing that no one got out of line. Rina was going to speak to the chief of police of the city to re-establish the rightful law and order (and to clear Alicia’s name, as well as any other former rebels who were arrested on similar charges). In the meantime, PSA’s were going out about how to handle withdrawal symptoms resulting from getting off of BL/ind ‘medication’. Though we had stopped future production, there was still a huge supply in pharmacies and at residents’ homes.

My parents were doing fine because they had been treated, and they left the hospital with me and the rest of the group that late morning.

“What do you want for your birthday, sweetheart?” Dad asked me.

“Honestly, the best thing I could have ever asked for is the world I woke up in today,” I told my dad with a smile. Mom smiled at me.

“I still feel like we should give you something…”

“Well, you already gave me the car.”

“That’s true,” Dad remarked. “Happy birthday!” he gave me a hug.

I glanced over to the guys, who were talking as we walked along, too. I looked back at my parents.

“You want to spend time with your friends, don’t you?” Mom asked me.

I tilted my head. “Please?”

“You’ve been doing everything for the past two years without our permission. Why start now?” Dad joked.

“Just stick with Alicia,” Mom told me with a cautious raise of her eyebrows. “I like her. I like Frank, too.”

I giggled. “But not the others?”

“Well, we just know Frank will watch out for you. So that’s why we’re more partial,” Dad explained. I raised my eyebrows. That was surprisingly cool of them.

We said our goodbyes for now, and they agreed to let me stay with the guys and Alicia for the rest of the day. They actually told me to take as much time as I needed.

However, Gerard and the others resolved on returning home to their families up north as soon as possible. This meant that I was left with a choice. I could choose to stay here in Battery City or I could go with them.

The hospital is probably the only place in the metropolis of Battery City that has a big parking lot, which worked out for the guys as they began to load up the car. It was actually a luxury car, courtesy of BLI.

Rina came up to me with a smile on her face, her long hair flowing freely behind her for once.

“Leya, I know we were talking about so many things up there… but I forgot to ask you.. How would you like to be my assistant?” Rina asked me.

My eyes widened. “What?”

She nodded with enthusiasm. “I’m not going to be able to run everything by myself! I’ll need someone smart, resourceful, and confident to help me out. What do you say?”

I blinked and then looked down. “I—I don’t know… I’ve never thought about doing something like that…”

“Well, you don’t have to take the position!” she assured me with a gentle touch on my arm. “But now that the world is going back to normal and you’ll be able to live a normal life again, I figured this would be a really good opportunity for you. And you’re very qualified for the job.”

“Thank you, Rina,” I replied with a smile. “But… would it be alright if I had like a week or two to think it over?”

“Sure!” Rina answered.

“You know, I can be of real great assistance,” said Pony as he sidled up and hooked his arm around Rina’s neck. He had been doing nothing but not-so-subtly flirting with her all day.

She narrowed her eyes at him and deftly took his arm off of her. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah, totally here if you need a hand,” Pony replied with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“You’re unbelievable,” Rina muttered as she walked away.

“Hey!” Pony wailed as he followed after her. I laughed, but as soon as I was left alone, I lost the smile.

The thing was… I wasn’t sure if I wanted a normal life anymore.

All these Killjoys… they all now had the choice of coming back to Battery City. And that seems like the obvious choice to make..and yet… I wasn’t exactly sure that a normal life in Battery City was what I still wanted.

But am I only saying that because now the option actually exists? Isn’t this what I’ve wanted the whole time I was miserably running around the desert?

No… what I wanted was a normal life with the people I loved close to me. It didn’t matter where I was, as long as I was with them.

“Hey, you cool?” Ray asked as he walked up to me.

“Yeah. Just…” I glanced down and sighed. “Everyone’s already moving on…”

Ray gently smiled at me. “And… you don’t know what to do next, do you?”

I shook my head.

“Understandable,” he brightly told me. “You haven’t had a normal life for a long time.”

“Can I even have a normal life? I don’t even know what that would look like…”

“Well, that’s the thing about moving forward in life. Facing the unknown is scary. But you gotta do it eventually. And Leya,” he placed a hand firmly on my shoulder. “You don’t have to run anymore.”

I smiled at Ray. “Thanks, Ray.”

“Anytime,” he replied.

“So, are you guys going to go home now, for good?” I asked as we walked back to the others.

Frank crossed his arms and pouted. “Hey, what did I tell you about getting that look on your face?”

I blinked rapidly and tried to relax my features to not look so sad. “I don’t have a look on my face,” I argued.

Frank came over and swung an arm over my shoulder. “You’re coming with us, Princess.”

I smiled up at him.

“If you want to,” Gerard quickly added. “No one’s forcing you.”

“Well, you don’t have a choice, but no one’s forcing you,” Frank told me with a giggle.

I laughed in return.

“Leya!” I turned around to see it was Caelan who had called out, his floppy brown hair bouncing up and down as he ran through the lot.

“Caelan!” I cheered out as he met me in a hug.

“We did it!” he cried out. “I can’t believe we did it!”

“Told you everything would be fine, didn’t I?” I told him with a raise of my eyebrow.

He sheepishly looked to the side. “Yeah, you did.”

“So are you gonna go back home to Sweetwater now?”

“Would you come back with me if I did?” he asked with a lopsided smirk.

“Well…” I turned back to the other guys. “I kind of have plans. But… soon!”

Caelan looked past me at the guys, then back to me. “I understand…” he cleared his throat. “Actually, I was planning on staying in Battery City for a while. I’ve never been here! And now that it’s free, I bet it’s gonna be amazing to explore.”

I smiled at Caelan. “Good.”

“Leya!” I turned around to see Zack quickly limping toward me across the lot now.

“Shouldn’t you still be resting?” I crossed my arms as he finally reached me.

He narrowed his eyes, which were shaded under the pointy ends of his hair, and then shook his head. “Of course not, I’m fine! Just a minor flesh wound!”

I gave him a pointed raise of my eyebrow. “You’re a hypocrite.”

He laughed. “Hey, at least I bandage myself before jumping into action. I may be a hypocrite, but you’re just reckless.”

Caelan cleared his throat. Then I turned around. “Oh, Zack, this is Caelan. He’s one of my friends I met out in the Zones.”

Zack nodded. “Hi, nice to meet you.” He held out his hand for Caelan to take, who gingerly took it and shook it.

“Caelan. Who are you exactly?” Calean asked with a slight narrowing of his eyes.

Zack blinked as he looked at me first, then back to Caelan. “I’m Zack. I’m an old friend of Leya’s from high school.”

“Oh, and you were a SCARECROW soldier?” Caelan asked as he sucked at the inside of  his cheek

I furrowed my brow and gave Caelan a look that I hope conveyed as “knock it off.”

“Yeah, I was,” Zack answered, still a cheerful smile on his face. “You’re a Killjoy, right? Awesome!”

I smiled at this. Zack was so good at never letting anyone ruin his mood. I glanced back at Caelan and saw his sour face softening. What I like to call the Zack Effect.

“Yeah,” Caelan replied.

Zack turned back to me. “So, Leya, I was wondering… you know, after you and I are  done getting things settled down with our own things in Battery City, did you want to like, hang out or something?”

I raised my eyebrows involuntarily. “You’re asking me if I want to hang out?”

Zack glanced down shortly, then cleared his throat. “Yeah. I mean… now that you won’t really need me anymore… but I thought we could still be friends…”

I breathed out a laugh. “We _are_ still friends, Zack.”

His blue eyes brightened up at this. “Good! Cool! When do you think we can hang out?”

“I’m not sure… I’m going up north with the guys,” I told him. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Oh,” he said, his eyes looking a bit dimmer.

“You know, Caelan’s going to be staying here in Battery City, isn’t that right?” I said with a beam towards Caelan. “So maybe you two should hang out! Show Caelan around, that’d be so great!”

Caelan and Zack glanced between each other, not looking so enthusiastic.

“Yeah, I’d be down to do that,” Zack started, “If you wanted to…”

Caelan blinked and quickly sputtered, “Y-yeah, that—that would be great.”

I smiled at both of them. “Maybe we can all hang out together once I get back.”

Zack grinned. “Yeah, sure. Well, I gotta get going, but… I’ll see you soon, I guess!”

He quickly moved forward and brought me into a hug. I reached up my arms to hug him back. He shortly grinned at me before letting go, then literally ran off, still slightly limping.

“What a weirdo…” Caelan remarked.

“Don’t be rude,” I chided with a smack on his arm. “And there’s nothing weird about him! Not any more than is weird about you.”

“Relax!” Caelan argued.

I breathed out a sigh. “Well, I really do hope you two get to know each other. He’s great. And you’re great, too.”

“Leya, come on!” Frank called from the car.

“Well, I gotta go,” I told Caelan before I pulled him into a hug. “Hope you enjoy this city.”

“I will,” Caelan replied with a grin. “I’ll see you when you get back!”

I nodded, then went running back over to where Frank and the others were waiting.

“Like I said… lining up,” Mikey remarked as he stood against the car with his arms crossed.

I’m pretty sure he was referencing the interaction between Zack and Caelan. I turned to him and lightly laughed. “Please… I’m just friends with them!”

“You sure about that?” he asked me with a crooked smirk.

“You know, I don’t really want to think about that,” I groaned. Then I smiled. “For the first time in a long time, I really just get to focus on myself and my happiness.”

Mikey smiled at me. “And you totally deserve to.”

“I’ve been fighting and running for so long, I think I’ve forgotten what it feels like to just… slow down and not have to worry about anything,” I replied, though it felt more like I was just thinking out loud. “So… what are you going to do now that you’re free?”

“Try and live life, I suppose,” Mikey told me. “I’m real excited to have all the time in the world with Alicia again.”

I smiled as I glanced toward her, where she was grinning down at Frank and patting him on the head, clearly winning some type of argument based on the way Frank’s face turned sour. “She really is incredible. I’m happy for you both.”

“Thank you,” Mikey told me with a kind look in his eyes.

Frank was stomping over towards us and then huffed out a sigh. “So… looks like you’re riding with me,” he addressed me.

“Well, we’re taking my car then. Which means I get to drive,” I triumphantly announced.

“Ugh,” Frank groaned.

“It’s a Hydrogen-powered car. And you don’t know how to drive stickshift,” I told him with a patronizing scrunch of my nose.

“What does Hydrogen power have to do with anything?” he grumbled.

“It’s solar powered… meaning less stops for gas,” I laughed.

“Oh… Well, why didn’t you just say so?” Frank muttered.

“So I take it Alicia beat you for the final spot in our car,” Mikey added.

Frank sourly laughed. “Well, I can’t really complain. With just me and Leya in the car, I’ll have more leg room.”

“Are we ready?” Gerard asked as soon as everyone formed up in a circle.

“Yep! Let’s get this show on the road!” Ray cheered out with his arms in the air.

“See you up there. You got the directions, right?” Gerard asked me.

“Well, I got Frank, so he better have directions,” I replied.

From that point on, we separated and Frank left with me as we walked to the metro, preparing to go back to Mikey’s apartment to get my car. He was so happy and bouncing around as he walked. I hadn’t really seen him like this since those first days I knew him.

——

In just a couple hours we finally set off in the Silvia, driving away in the desert towards the sun.

“Hey, you won’t mind if we make one stop on the way, right?” Frank asked me from the passenger seat.

I shortly glanced at him. “Sure. But… where are we stopping?”

“Not too far from here. And it’ll be fairly quick. There’s just one more thing that I have to do. A promise I have to keep,” Frank said as he stared forward.

I nodded, and thirty minutes later, we stopped on a rocky hill sprouted with desert shrubs all over. A small house was at the top of the hill.

Frank got out of the car first, and brought along his katana. Gerard had ordered one of his former subordinates to return all of our weapons and gadgets at the hospital. I got my power glove back—well, Mikey’s power glove—and Frank got his swords back.

“Should I come along?” I asked as I got out of the car, the wind pushing against my door.

Frank sent me a grin, the faint scar on his mouth creasing. “Sure.”

I nodded and followed just behind as he walked up to the house. He knocked on the wooden door three times.

In just a few seconds, the door slid a little to the left.

“Frank!” gasped out a short, old, gray-haired woman. I noticed she had a ray gun tucked in one of the loops on her jeans.

Frank grinned, his eyes creasing together. “Hi, Masaki.”

Her mouth was wide open in shock. “You’re alive!”

Frank looked down and softly chuckled. “Yeah. And… I brought back your sword! Er, well, Henry’s sword, I guess, but—”

Frank was cut off by the old woman leaping forward and wrapping her arms around his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder.

I smiled at the exchange as I stood off to the side.

This was the woman that saved Frank, that helped him survive after he left to go after Gerard.

“I thought I was going to die before I ever saw you again,” Masaki chuckled as she pulled away from Frank.

Frank giggled. “Death wouldn’t stop me.”

Masaki pursed her lips into a grin, then her dark eyes wandered over to me. “Oh!”

“Hi… You don’t know me at all, but I—”

Frank cut me off and stuttered, “Um—this is—”

"Your girl?” Masaki questioned Frank.

My eyebrows shot up as I prepared to negate that.

Frank turned to me and grinned. “Not the girl I told you about. But she’s definitely my girl, too.”

I could feel my cheeks heat up at hearing this, so I turned back to Masaki to distract myself. “Hi, I’m Leya. It’s nice to meet you… Masaki, right?” I extended my hand for a handshake.

Masaki took my hand into her wrinkled one and smiled. “Yes.”

“She’s the girl who rescued Battery City,” Frank added. I turned to him, feeling my cheeks tingle again. Stop telling people that!

“Well—I—Uh….” I started, “I didn’t do it by myself! And Frank did a lot to dismantle SCARECROW. And he’s the one who killed the Director.”

“Fuu is dead?” Masaki questioned with a gasp. Her eyes widened and looked much younger.

Frank bit his lip. “Yes. We dueled each other. I won.”

Masaki quickly nodded, looking toward her feet. “Well, you should come inside and tell me all about it. I’ve been thinking you were dead for the longest time. Until I saw that giant cloud yesterday. Finally stuck it to BLI, didn’t you!”

I glanced at Frank with a smile as we both entered. We sat down on these nice mats and pillows in what looked like a living room. It was colorful, lit up with lamps in the corner, and made me feel relaxed.

Over green tea, Frank told Masaki his story after infiltrating Battery City, and I got to finish up with my portion of the tale of BLI’s demise.

“So it’s really all over…” Masaki remarked softly.

“Well, there’s a lot of cleanup and rehabilitation to do, but SCARECROW is gone and Better Living Industries is dead. The future looks bright,” Frank replied.

Masaki nodded. “So you not only got your best friend back, but you also saved the world.” She smiled fondly at Frank. “I was wrong about you.”

Frank raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Hmm?”

Masaki kept her gaze on him. “You had what it took. You proved me wrong. Just like Henry.”

Frank bashfully smiled at her, and briefly glanced down.

“Speaking of Henry…” he turned around and picked up the sword from the floor carefully, balancing it atop his palms as he bowed his head forward. “Thank you.”

“Henry would be proud,” Masaki remarked as she smiled. “You were worthy to carry his sword.”

Frank swallowed. “Well, now it can finally go back to its rightful owner.”

Masaki placed a hand on top of Frank’s. “Keep it.”

Frank lifted his head up. “What?”

“So that you have something to remember me by. After all, I can retire in peace now. Knowing that you finally brought peace and sense back to this world. I don’t need a sword.”

Frank blinked rapidly. “But… this is Henry’s!”

“I have a bunch of Henry’s things,” Masaki dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You keep it. It’s yours.”

“Well, I’m not gonna use it anymore. Unless you want me to chop fruit with it,” Frank joked.

I laughed at this. So did Masaki.

“Hey, you should come up with us,” I suggested to her with a grin. “It’ll be nice. You don’t have to stay here in the desert anymore!”

Masaki smiled. “Thank you for the invitation, but really, I’m an old woman. I can’t be going on long journeys anymore.”

“Well, at least get yourself to Battery City,” Frank said as he stared at Masaki. “You deserve to be somewhere comfortable again.”

Masaki sighed. “You want me to pick up and move all by myself?”

Frank scrunched his mouth in annoyance. “I’ll help you move! As long as you get yourself a nice house. And proper food! Like I’d let a little old lady like you live like this when the city is at peace.”

Masaki softly chuckled. “Still have a temper, I see. You make sure to keep him in line if he spits out at you,” she directed to me.

I softly laughed. “Don’t worry. I always do.”

“Hey!” Frank protested.

Masaki and I giggled, and then a few minutes later we all said our goodbyes. Though they were more like “see-you-later”s.

——

“So how’s your birthday been?” Frank asked me once were on the empty strip of road, yellow fields of grass on either side of us for hours as the sun was setting.

I smiled over at him. “It’s been pretty good.”

“Really? Driving all day long with a jerk like me is your idea of a good time?” he joked.

I grinned at him. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Frank softly grinned back at me.

“It’s a long drive, but it’ll be worth it. It’s beautiful up there. Actually feels like a part of the earth. And Jamia… and our…. our family is up there,” Frank said as he looked into the distance, color rising in his cheeks.

I smiled. “Can’t wait to meet them.”

——

It was an overnight drive and my legs were aching, but we finally got there in the early morning. There was somewhere that was either northern California or Oregon, but so many forest trees blurred together for hours that I couldn’t tell.

I hadn’t seen this much color in years.

I was in total awe of all the green, all the different shades of it—and the fact that there were actual trees and meadows and water and life—just so much life! There were birds! Bugs! Butterflies! Squirrels!

We stopped at a cabin in a clearing that we got to through driving on a winding road through the forest for about an hour. A nice, though bumpy, ride. It looked peaceful here, and the cabin had two stories and looked like something you’d see at a ski resort. Maybe this used to be part of one.

“Here we are,” Frank said with a gulp as he stepped outside. Just a few seconds later, a dark-haired woman emerged from the cabin with two small toddlers in tow.

“Daddy!” the two little ones squealed out as they ran up to him. They were identical twin girls.

Frank brought the woman—who I assume was Jamia—close to him and they shared a couple sweet kisses. They were all in a group embrace and it was so beautiful. Frank couldn’t stop looking at the two little girls he and Jamia were carrying between them. And though I could see the tears on his face from here, he looked so damn happy.

“Which one of you’s Lily?” he asked in a bright voice.

“I’m Lily!” one of them exclaimed as she raised her arms in the air.

“That must mean you’re Cherry!” Frank exclaimed as he brought a tickling hand to her belly, while making sure to keep her steady under his arm.

“Welcome home,” Jamia told him, just before Frank reached over and kissed her on the head again.

I shyly walked near them. Then Frank glanced over to me.

“Oh, hey, I want you all to meet Leya!” he brightly introduced. “She’s real awesome, and she’s going to be your new aunt!” The two little girls eyed me with curiosity and Jamia approached me with a gentle grin.

“Hi, I’m Jamia,” she told me as she hugged me close.

I smiled wide. “Hi, I’ve heard so many good things about you!”

She turned to Frank and gave him a sly look. “Oh really?”

“Only the best,” Frank replied with a bend of his eyebrow. Jamia laughed, then turned back to me.

“It’s really good to meet you, Leya.”

“You, too!” I answered.

“Hey, you guys made it!” It was Alicia who had cheered as she walked down the stairs of the front porch. She was looking radiant, yellow bandana in her hair, wearing bright tank top and shorts on, her long hair swaying in the soft breeze.

After she gave me a hug, we walked inside the cabin and there I met up with Mikey and Gerard, who greeted me with back-crushing hugs at the same time. Then I met Lindsey, Gerard’s wife, and their three year old Bandit. (Really, Bandit? Except I’m not really surprised)

“Hi!” Lindsey told me, her eyes big. Her mouth was a bright red, and she was smiling really wide. “Gerard has told me all about you! He wouldn’t shut up!”

I grinned.“Hopefully good things!”

“Are you a princess?” Bandit asked me. She was wearing a bright red shirt and green shorts, plastic black-and-white striped sunglasses in her tangled nest of brown hair.

I blinked at this and looked to Gerard, who had never looked more smug in his life. I softly laughed. “Well, every girl is a princess!”

Further inside the house, Ray and his wife Christa were sitting out on the back porch drinking some kind of tea before I got introduced. Christa was soft-spoken, but she seemed gentle and kind. Of course Ray would marry someone like that. Then a small girl with very curly, cinnamon colored hair came skipping through the house.

“Who are you?” she asked, pointing to me.

This was Grace.

This was the little girl they had been looking for, the girl that I had wanted to go along with to save myself. The rescue mission that started all of their toils in the past year.

“Hi. I’m Leya,” I said as I bent down and held out my hand.

“My name’s Grace! You’re really pretty!” she told me as she bit her lip into a smile.

“Oh, thank you! You’re really pretty too!” I told her with a grin.

The house was lively and teeming with pure joy, and Frank’s daughters then pulled me by the hand to help them start coloring some pages they had already been scribbling on. I looked up at Frank as we sat on the floor, and he widely grinned down at us all until Jamia came up to his side, and they smiled at each other.

I looked around to see the rest of the happy scene playing out, everyone reunited with the ones they loved, the ones they had gone so long without. This is my new family, too, and everything’s alright and everyone is happy.

I can’t keep the smile off of my face.

We finally got the happy ending we deserved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this story :)


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